Injury Notes: Dickerson, Whitlock, Gonsolin, Haniger, Slater

Corey Dickerson left today’s game due to tightness in his left calf, and Nationals manager Davey Martinez told reporters (including Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com) that the outfielder will receive an MRI tomorrow.  This isn’t the first time that Dickerson has dealt with such an injury, as a strain in his left calf cost him about a month of Dickerson’s 2022 season with the Cardinals.

Washington signed Dickerson to a one-year, $2.25MM deal over the offseason, adding a left-handed veteran to their mix of right-handed hitting and mostly less-experienced young outfielders.  Dickerson was slated to get the bulk of work in left field whenever a righty starter was on the mound, and considering how the Nats are rebuilding, Dickerson will likely be shopped at the trade deadline if he is performing well.  Of course, staying healthy is the first step, and Dickerson and the Nationals can only hope that tomorrow’s MRI doesn’t reveal anything serious.

More on other injury situations from around the majors…

• Garrett Whitlock made a Triple-A rehab start yesterday, and Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters (including The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey) that Whitlock is planned for one more outing with Double-A Portland on Thursday.  Assuming all goes well, the Sox would then activate Whitlock from the 15-day injured list for his next outing and his 2023 debut.  The right-hander needed a little more time to prepare following hip surgery last September, thus necessitating the IL visit at the start of the season.  The Red Sox are planning to use Whitlock as a full-time member of the starting rotation this year, after hip problems interrupted his first stint in the rotation in 2022.
• Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya and other reporters that Tony Gonsolin is intended to throw a bullpen session on Sunday and then a live batting practice session at the team’s extended spring camp on Wednesday.  Gonsolin suffered an ankle sprain in early March and is expected to need until late April to return to the L.A. rotation, but the righty appears to be making good progress in recovery.
• The Giants provided media (including MLB.com’s Maria I. Guardado) with several updates on injured players, including the news that Mitch Haniger and Austin Slater will both be re-evaluated this week in San Francisco when the Giants begin their first homestand of the year.  Both players began the season on the 10-day IL, with Haniger dealing with a Grade 1 oblique strain and Slater a hamstring strain.  A more concrete timetable might be known after next week’s check-ins, though the team did have some hope that Haniger (who suffered his strain on March 10) would be ready for Opening Day, and Slater was given an initial estimate of a 3-4 week recovery period.  Slater is starting to progress to baseball activities in his rehab, so it would appear he has a chance of returning within that initial window.