Justin Turner left today’s game due to what the Dodgers described as left groin discomfort, and manager Dave Roberts said the third baseman will have to miss at least a brief amount of time. Turner will “be down for a few days and then we’ll re-evaluate,” Roberts told Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register and other reporters.
In the top of the second inning, Turner made an impressive play to get to a grounder and then throw out Jose Iglesias at first base. Turner picked up his injury on this play, though he remained in the game to finish the inning before being replaced by pinch-hitter Albert Pujols (who homered) in the bottom half of the frame.
Los Angeles doesn’t have a game on Monday, though Turner seems set to miss most or all of the team’s upcoming series with the surging Phillies from August 10-12. Since the Dodgers have dropped to four games behind the Giants in the NL West race, L.A. can’t afford to be without its star third baseman for long, as Turner has continued to excel in his age-36 season.
After re-signing with the Dodgers for two years and a guaranteed $34MM in the offseason, Turner has hit .289/.376/.491 with 20 home runs over 439 plate appearances. While Turner has been no stranger to the injured list over his career, he has been the picture of durability this year, ranking second on the Dodgers with 105 games played.
The veteran’s stability has helped carry the Dodgers through a number of other injuries, so the team’s depth will again be tested for what it hopes will be a brief absence for Turner. The Dodgers do have enough versatile players to make do in the short term, as the club could slide Max Muncy or Chris Taylor over to the hot corner and then mix and match other bench options to fill in gaps.
Dodger players hurt themselves running the bases and fielding grounders. How did baseball get yo this point? Players use to play on Astroturf with fewer days off and miss very few games. Players today are better conditioned, have better nutrition and stay in shape year round but strain obliques and hamstrings daily. I just don’t understand it.
Imagine if it was Tatis on the play? He’d be done for life. His groin would have completely exploded.
Nah, he’d miss ten days, avoid surgery and come back for a month until he’d get injured again.
Thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery.
Ouch…..the mere thought….
Tatis has never had groin injuries, he can do high speed splits while never breaking a smile. So not sure what your take is about here – maybe just jealousy?
Exploding groins. I lost the ability to read after that.
They are too muscled up that why. It is easier to pull and tear something when you are working out all the time.
That’s exactly why I don’t work out and “muscle up.” Don’t want to “pull and tear something .”
Justin Turner is not exactly the “muscled up” prototype in MLB. He looks more like my uncle Jack the longshoreman
Baseball players move in ways that the human body just isn’t adapted for. Swinging the bat and throwing pitches puts stress on the body in weird ways. Stopping while running hard can’t be easy on the body either. Imagine the stress that the body endures while fielding a ground ball. You run, stop, twist, and throw. This all taxes your body. Do this over and over again starting at a young age.
NFL players do what you described on almost every play? Are they better athletes? What about NBA and NHL players? Have you considered the fact that maybe baseball players are soft and really not great athletes?
and I’m not saying this to put baseball players down. In most places today the best athletes play football and basketball.
They train and exercise and push their bodies to peak capability, and the result is optimal performance but also a greater risk of injury. It’s the same way with pitchers, who are throwing harder than ever with more movement but with an associated heightened risk of something snapping. The pursuit of top performance is required to stay on top, but the stay may be shorter because of injury. It’s similar in the NFL and NBA and other sports. Baseball players are anything but soft. But when the season investment increases, owners are more cautious.
Football players do it once a week, roughly 20 games per year after preseason and everything. Maybe as many as 24 games for a team that goes to the SB as a wildcard. NBA players also seem to get hurt regularly, but they typically only play 3-4 times a week and get off days all the time.
MLB is every day, 6 or 7 days a week for 6 months straight. These guys might go 3 weeks without a day off at times, all the while hopping on red-eye flights and sleeping in different cities every 3 days.
So you can call baseball players soft if you want to, but the MLB schedule is a grind – and through the hottest months of the year. There’s a reason August is called the “dog days.” Because this is typically the toughest stretch. 100 games already on those bodies, but still 60+ to go.
They are overpaid girly men. At one time pitchers pitched both ends of double headers and were fine. Girly men for sure with no work ethic.
mdmore – The level of competition has ramped up tremendously since those “good old days.” Your childish insults say much more about you than about MLB players.
Baseball wasn’t Made For WEIGHT LIFTERS
AND ZERO BODY FAT! It’s A Game where you HAVE TO AGILE & FLEXIBLE…
NOT MUSCLEBOUND & On The IL ALL THE TIME.
It is why someone like ichiro had relatively few injuries in his career
Are we supposed to mentally yell when we read those ALL-CAPS comments?
Well it’s a Mets fan so of course he’s angry
Because back in the day they played through this sort of injury. The real change is the amount of money at stake in the game and advances in sports medicine.
Back in the day players wouldn’t stand a chance against today’s players. Today’s players are finely tuned baseball machines. My guess, it’s another reason why their bodies are so stressed. Another thing to consider is steroid enforcement. Stuff like growth hormones increases recovery speeds. I know this first hand. I went through a Florida clinic and injected HGH for a year. It makes a huge difference.
Jon- I believe only someone that has done a couple good cycles can fully understand steroids/HGH (Good and Bad)
Pessimist or optimist going in, it will make NO difference by week 2.5 as long as your consuming your calories
I agree, today’s athletes are more conditioned. But I wonder how today’s ball players would perform if they had to wear baggy cotton uniforms, no helmets, travel on trains, use gloves not much larger than their hands, use bats that are not hogged-out on the tip, and no batting gloves. On the flip side, I wonder how B. Ruth, T. Cobb, J. Robinson & T. Williams would do against today’s pitching?
You don’t need to go back even that far. Sandy Koufax pitched until his arm turned black and blue. No player would be allowed to play with that kind of hurt or anything close to it today. Better conditioning for sure but also a much greater medical knowledge of how small injuries can become career-enders if they go untreated. Turner getting a few days off for what seems to us to be a minor tweak is really all about that.
si.com/mlb/2021/08/09/mike-trout-injury-epidemic-t…
Tatis hurts himself every 8 games
Exactly 8?
And he is the front runner for MVP, more HR and more SB, better OPS, what a talented player, ahhhh?
fruntrunner is debatable if he cant get back on the pace.
This article isn’t about Tatis, but he’s on your mind a lot eh?
Do we no Longer live in a society where
You can go to a massage therapist for a pulled Groin?
Ask Deshaun Watson
But this is legit. So if he goes
To the massage therapist and they ask “where does it hurt” and he in turn points to his peepee, will he get I trouble?
I think it’s past your bedtime
And Robert Kraft
Sean: “I’ll take ‘The Rapist’ for $500, Alex. The answer is ‘Who is Trevor Bauer.”
Alex: “That’s not ‘The Rapist,’ Mr. Connery. It’s ‘Therapist.’ And I haven’t even read the answer yet.”
Sean: “Well, I didn’t need to wait for your permission last night with your mother, Trebek! HA, HA, HA!”
Alex: “Why do I even try.”
Thank you, Alex.
No worries. Just a few days. Tio Albert will slide right in, and pick up the slack.
Beaty and Muncy will take those games.
Yup. Albert to first and Muncy to third. Then give each of them a break by subbing with any number of other capable players. Luckily for the Dodgers most of their players can handle multiple positions.
Might be the moment to give Seager some time at 3B. He did play some of it in his rookie year.
I agree. He needs reps at 3rd. His defense at SS is lacking, and to be honest, it always has.
I’m happy to see that it’s nothing major. And even if he requires an IL stint, it sounds like it would be more precautionary than anything else.
My guess is that Taylor moves to the Hot Corner while Turner is out so that Belli can have CF to work himself back into hitting shape. Which, if the last two games say anything, is right around the corner. Here’s the lineup that I’d love to see:
Betts
Turner
Muncy
Seager
Smith
Taylor
Pollock
Belli
Pitcher
Should be a fun stretch run.
what do you have against the other Turner being in the lineup?
huh?
Justin Turner is currently injured. This is the lineup I’d love to see in his absence.
sorry man, mis-read, my goof
Season is over LA, pack up the bags for 2021. Who is next?
When they still have the second best record in the NL, 3rd best in MLB? Seems pretty dumb. But keep wishing out Loud!
Turner currently has 1,139 hits and 144 home runs.
If he only misses a few days, he should finish the season around 1,170 and 150, respectively.