Oblique strains have frustrated Los Angeles sports teams over the past few months.
The Los Angeles Lakers lost Austin Reaves for a month due to the injury, forcing the guard to miss a majority of their first-round NBA playoff series against the Houston Rockets.
The same happened to Mookie Betts, who strained his oblique at the start of April on the road against the Washington Nationals following a checked swing.
Betts hasn’t played since and hasn’t begun his rehabilitation stint in the minors, but it might not be long for Dodgers fans before they’re back cheering for their star shortstop at Dodger Stadium.
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The Athletic’s Dodgers beat reporter Fabian Ardaya believes that Betts could be back in the L.A. lineup by Monday when they start a series against their archrivals, the San Francisco Giants.
Betts will play for the franchise’s Triple-A team, the Oklahoma City Comets, on Friday and Saturday before returning home to Los Angeles on Sunday to see if he is fully ready to return to the team after a month-long absence.
If Betts returns to the active roster this weekend, it will push the Dodgers to send down one of their infielders. It would most likely come down to Alex Freeland, Kim Hye-seong, or veteran Santiago Espinal.
On purely how they’re performing, it would seem like a no-brainer for the Dodgers to send down Espinal, who has struggled mightily at the plate following a spring training where he was hitting a home run every other day.
With Betts taking his starting position back at shortstop, expect a battle between Freeland and Kim to see who could take control of the starting 2nd baseman job until Tommy Edman rejoins the team sometime this summer from ankle surgery he had in the offseason.
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