After suffering a season-ending knee injury in 2017, Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Andrew Toles looked to be healthy this past spring, tearing the cover off the ball, attempting to steal bases and making plays in the outfield.
Nonetheless, the Dodgers still decided to option him to Triple-A Oklahoma City to begin the season. It was so that Toles could receive regular at-bats and continue to work himself into game shape.
Toles continued his high level of play to begin the season, batting an impressive .462/.500/.731 with a home run and seven RBI in his first six games of the season.
He went down with a hamstring injury on April 13 though, which he originally did not think was serious. He was still placed on the Minor League disabled list, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts anticipated he would miss around two weeks of action.
It is right around that two-week mark now, and there are still no signs of Toles returning, which he feels is because the organization wants to be extra cautious, via Jacob Unruh of News OK:
“They just want to make sure nothing happens,” Toles said.
Toles went on to add that the organization has informed him that it will be at least another 10 days before he returns, so he is still a ways away from getting back into a game.
That will certainly delay Toles’ timetable for when he gets back to the big leagues, although there is still no question that he will make an impact for the Dodgers at some point this season.
But with Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig and Chris Taylor getting a majority of the outfield at-bats and Roberts still believing that Joc Pederson is a big part of what the organization is trying to accomplish, there isn’t really a clear path for playing time for Toles at the moment.