Dodgers will overcome Justin Turner’s broken wrist
By Sean Sears
Justin Turner is going to miss some time with a broken wrist, but the Dodgers will overcome.
Los Angeles Dodgers All-Star third-baseman Justin Turner suffered a broken wrist after getting plunked last night against the Athletics. While Los Angeles is a much better club when Turner is in the lineup, the reigning NL Champs have the depth to survive.
The 33-year-old Turner caught an inside fastball to his left wrist Monday night in the Dodgers 3-1 spring training win over the Athletics. The red-haired slugger has blossomed in LA, posting back-to-back 5.5 WAR seasons in ’16 and ’17, was off to another excellent start this spring.
While it’s impossible to replace an MVP-candidate player in Turner, the Dodgers do have the depth to absorb the blow over the first half of the season. Currently, manager Dave Roberts plans on sliding starting 2nd baseman Logan Forsyth into Turner’s 3rd base corner while platooning veteran Chase Utley and Enrique Hernandez at the keystone.
They also could try and use either Chris Tayler, who filled in at shortstop for Corey Seager against the Cubs during the NLCS last October or even move backup catcher Austin Barnes to 2nd, who’s played some games there last season.
When it comes to Turner’s timetable with his wrist, he suffered a ‘small non-displaced fracture’ in his left wrist, which means the bone just cracked but wasn’t knocked out of place – I’m no doctor, but I would assume that’s good news for the Dodgers.
That being said, wrist injuries are tricky and could have career-altering effects. A player like former Cubs 1st baseman Derrek Lee, who broke two bones in his wrist the season after clubbing 46 home runs, never truly regained his power stroke.
Lee’s injury was much more significant than Turner’s, but it’s safe to assume the Dodger 3rd baseman is going to miss at least the first few months of baseball. Turner’s power numbers dropped a bit last season, hitting 7 home runs less and almost 20 less RBI, but his OPB was a career-high .415.
Next: 14 Biggest MLB Brawls Ever
Turner’s absence in the Dodger clubhouse will be felt, but it’s no reason to believe that L.A. isn’t a top-five team in baseball. Only teams like the Astros and Cubs can rival their depth, and as they showed this past postseason, their players are not afraid of seizing moments when given.