Yasmani Grandal is among the Los Angeles Dodgers who haven’t been able to remain 100 percent throughout the spring. Coming off an arthroscopic surgery in October on the AC joint in his left shoulder, the 27-year-old catcher has been hampered by lingering forearm soreness.
The nagging issue forced Grandal to miss time earlier this month, as he went one week between appearing in Cactus League games. Upon returning March 16, he managed to appear in four games before again dealing with the soreness.
Grandal was removed after two innings on Monday, and sent for further tests on his forearms. He was expected to be in Thursday’s lineup, but that wasn’t the case. An MRI didn’t reveal any structural damage, but Grandal’s level of activity is being limited throughout the weekend.
While the injury is not believed to be serious, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts acknowledged it’s plausible Grandal will not have enough time to fully recover by Opening Day, according to Bill Plunkett of the OC Register:
Roberts less optimistic about Yasmani Grandal (forearm) outlook. Acknowledged he might not be ready for Opening Day #Dodgers
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) March 25, 2016
If that were to happen, the Dodgers would like back date placing Grandal on the disabled list. However, in order to do so, he can’t appear in any Cactus League games. Grandal is batting .375/.412/.688 with one home run, two doubles and three RBIs in 17 plate appearances over eight games this spring.
He hit .234/.353/.403 with 16 home runs, 47 RBIs, 92 strikeouts, 65 walks, a .335 wOBA and 115 wRC+ in 115 games last season. Grandal led catchers with a .401 on-base percentage, .927 on-base plus slugging percentage, and was second with 14 home runs.
He was hampered by the shoulder injury in the second half that affected his swing and success at the plate, which led to the aforementioned surgery.
