After struggling through the first five weeks of the season, Edwin Rios was placed on the 10-day injured list due to right shoulder inflammation. The Los Angeles Dodgers then announced Rios would undergo season-ending surgery to repair a partially torn labrum in the shoulder.
“With baseball, I feel like you’re always grinding and feeling something. It’s one of those things where you’re in there getting treatment, it just wasn’t getting better,” Rios explained.
“We took a look at it and when we took a look at it, it was worse than we thought. The doctor advised me to get surgery.”
Rios was mired in an 0-for-32 skid with four walks, 12 strikeouts and one hit by pitch at the time of being put on the IL. His last hit was a one-out single in the fifth inning on April 13. Rios flied out two innings later to begin the offensive drought.
“I worked with the strength coaches and we tried to do certain things to correct things,” Rios said. “It just wasn’t getting better. That’s when we took a look at it and we saw what we saw, unfortunately.”
Learning that season-ending surgery was required, Rios understandably felt frustration. But there also is a sense of relief with getting an answer behind his struggles and being able to move on.
“I’ll be back,” he said. “We’re going to rehab this thing and I’m going to be back stronger. … The plan is to go to AZ, rehab this thing, get back to 100% and get back to doing what I do.”
Roberts believes injury were behind Rios’ struggles
After productive showings during parts of the 2019 and 2020 seasons, Rios was expected to be one of the Dodgers’ top bench players this year. Why he never got into a rhythm is now clear, and Roberts believes the shoulder trouble was a significant factor.
“I would say a large majority of his struggles were related to the injury,” Roberts said. “As I look back and see certain things, the swing just didn’t look right, and now it all makes sense. I wish he would’ve come forward a little earlier.
“But as a player, you just don’t know at what point you can play through it, and being hurt versus being injured. Eddie is a great teammate. I’m just happy he made a decision he felt is best for him personally. Now we can go ahead with the surgery, do the rehab process and get him back to 100%.”
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