Generally speaking, the Los Angeles Dodgers have been healthy on the position-player side of things now over two weeks into Spring Training. That’s with the exceptions of Cody Bellinger and Russell Martin, who both have recently battled through respective back injuries.
Though, Bellinger has already shrugged off the discomfort and managed to return to the lineup. The same can’t be said for Martin, who remains sidelined for precautionary reasons.
The original plan was for Martin to make his way back to the lineup on Monday against the San Francisco Giants. That was eventually scrapped and delayed to Wednesday after the 36-year-old recovered slower than anticipated.
Martin’s back has evidently not improved in recent days, as according to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com, the 36-year-old’s imminent return to the lineup is now being pushed back to the weekend:
Russell Martin’s return from sore back pushed to the weekend, recovering slower than hoped.
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) March 4, 2019
Still in the early stages of Spring Training, it isn’t surprising that the Dodgers are being cautious with Martin and are content with holding him out until everything checks out health-wise.
Should the 13-year veteran return over the weekend, it’ll mark a week-plus since he last appeared in a Cactus League game. For the spring, he has collected two hits in eight at-bats with two runs scored, one double and three RBI.
Still over three weeks away from Opening Day, Martin has plenty of time to recover from the back injury and get enough at-bats to be ready for the start of the regular season.
