The Los Angeles Dodgers have another injury on their hands, but one that apparently isn’t as bad as it sounds.
Former MVP Mookie Betts fractured his toe after stubbing it against a wall while talking in a dark bathroom Wednesday night, he told Dylan Hernández of the Los Angeles Times on Friday. However, he only expects to miss two days, as the issue is only pain management.
In a sport that features plenty of odd injuries at home, that is definitely one of them.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts confirmed to reporters that Betts is not expected to go on the injured list, but won’t play for the rest of L.A.’s current series against the New York Yankees, per ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez.
Roberts told reporters before the game, an 8-5 comeback win over the Yankees, that Betts had stubbed his toe Wednesday and was undergoing X-rays, which ended up revealing the fracture. With 14 players already on the injured list, all of them pitchers, the Dodgers don’t need another injury.
Roberts lamented the issue via The Athletic:
“It just keeps coming,” Roberts said. “It’s Murphy’s law. But yeah, this is a weird one.”
Mookie Betts has been much improved at shortstop for the Dodgers this season. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
(Elsa via Getty Images)
Even if Betts only misses a couple more days, that still means he would miss the final two games of a marquee series for MLB between the Yankees and Dodgers. If he had been in the game Friday, the two teams would have made history with the first game to feature three former MVPs in each lineup: Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman on the Dodgers and Aaron Judge, Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger on the Yankees.
Of course, Betts and the Dodgers don’t care about that as much as MLB’s TV partners do.
It’s been a mostly down season at the plate for Betts, an eight-time All-Star, seven-time Silver Slugger and six-time Gold Glover. He’s slashing .254/.338/.405 in 53 games this season, with all three numbers representing career lows. However, he has also been supplying much-needed defense at shortstop for the Dodgers, who will feel the loss heavily if Betts has to miss more time than he thinks.
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