Turner suffers non-displaced fracture in left wrist after hit by pitch

Rowan Kavner
Dodger Insider
Published in
3 min readMar 20, 2018
Justin Turner suffered a wrist fracture after being hit by a pitch Monday. (Nicholas Quay/Camelback Ranch)

by Rowan Kavner

One of the first things the Dodgers saw Monday night was one of the last things they hoped to see, as Justin Turner was hit by a pitch and had to leave the game in the first inning.

Manager Dave Roberts confirmed after the game that his All-Star third baseman broke his left wrist. Turner later described the injury as a “small, non-displaced fracture,” and there’s currently no timetable for his return.

Turner was hoping the X-rays would show something different, but he got the news after the game about the fracture and will talk to the doctors Tuesday to try to find out more.

“It definitely wasn’t what I wanted to hear,” Turner said. “It started to feel better and better as I was in there doing X-rays, so I was pretty hopeful they would come back negative. You get the news, and it’s tough.”

The injury came as a result of an inside pitch from Oakland’s Kendall Graveman in Monday’s 3–1 Dodger win against the Athletics. For now, Turner said all he can do is keep the wrist wrapped and manage the swelling as he waits to figure out the timeline.

Manager Dave Roberts told SportsNet LA’s Alanna Rizzo that he got an update in the middle of the game about the broken wrist but didn’t have much more to elaborate on at the moment.

“Obviously, that’s going to be some time down,” Roberts said. “But we don’t have a timetable. I don’t know anything further than that.”

Roberts said he feels for Turner, who was working out constantly at Dodger Stadium and in Los Angeles this winter to get ready for the year. Turner’s coming off a season in which he led the team with a .945 OPS, .322 batting average and .415 on-base percentage.

As the manager, though, the attention turns immediately to what’s next.

“We’ve got a lot of good players,” Roberts said. “Guys got to step up. There’s other opportunities. JT’s going to work hard to come back.”

Turner said Cody Bellinger could hit third in the lineup with Turner out, and Logan Forsythe could figure into the equation at third base. Forsythe played 42 games at third base last year, in addition to his 80 games at second base.

“We really like him at third base, so I’ll talk to Logan about that,” Roberts said. “As far as second base, we’ve got a lot of options there.”

Behind Turner and Forsythe, Kiké Hernández’s 14 games were the most last year at third base, plus Kyle Farmer has been working at the spot. With Chase Utley, Hernández, Chris Taylor and Austin Barnes, the Dodgers have a plethora of players with experience at second base from last season.

The Dodgers will need to count on their depth with Turner down 10 days away from Opening Day.

“I’m going to do everything I can to get back as fast as I can,” Turner said. “There’s a lot of good baseball players in here, I don’t think we’ll miss a beat.”

The Dodgers won Tuesday with home runs from Cody Bellinger, Joc Pederson and Trayce Thompson and with the help of five more scoreless innings from Alex Wood, who’s now tossed nine scoreless innings with 12 strikeouts in his last two Cactus League outings.

“His fastball had life,” Roberts said. “He’s been working through some mechanical things. To see it come to fruition and play well tonight, it was really good. The change-up, the breaking ball, the fastball was down all night long, both sides of the plate.”

Postgame transactions

After the game, the Dodgers optioned right-handed pitcher Dylan Baker and left-handed pitcher Adam Liberatore and reassigned infielder Jake Peter and infielder Donovan Solano to minor league camp.

The moves leave 34 players remaining in Major League camp, including Turner, Tom Koehler (shoulder) and Julio Urías (shoulder), who are all out with injuries.

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Published in Dodger Insider

It's time for everything to do with Dodger baseball.

Written by Rowan Kavner

Editor, Digital & Print Publications for the Los Angeles Dodgers | Twitter: @RowanKavner

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