PHOENIX — Will Smith had to go through X-rays, a CT scan and two MRIs on his right hand in order to be told what he thought he knew.
“I could tell it was a little more than bruising. They were assuring me it was (only a bone bruise),” said Smith, who injured his right hand on a foul tip three weeks ago now. “So then you’re kind of, ‘Okay, I guess it is just dealing with it.’ Then it turns out I wasn’t going crazy and it was more. I can trust my body a little bit which I guess is good. But it is a fracture and that takes time.”
Smith’s second MRI last week revealed a hairline fracture at the base of the third metacarpal. He has a brace on his right hand now but has not tried throwing or swinging a bat since the diagnosis that came two weeks after the injury.
The chances of Smith being ready to play when the Dodgers open the postseason in a wild card series next Tuesday appear dim.
“I’m hoping for it,” he said. “I’m doing everything I can to be ready.”
For now, that means running on the field, doing rotational exercises to simulate swings, catching bullpens (but not throwing the ball back) and tracking pitches. He stood in the batter’s box for Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s bullpen session.
Smith expects his return to full baseball activities to be a “pain-tolerance kind of thing.”
“At some point, I’ll definitely get some live ABs, not in games,” he said. “But it’s crunch time. Gotta go. Whenever I’m ready I’ll be back in there.”
If somehow Smith is healthy enough to be on the Dodgers’ wild card series roster, it’s likely he would be one of three catchers with Ben Rortvedt and Dalton Rushing also on the roster.
If he is not on the roster for the best-of-three wild card series, the Dodgers could add Smith for subsequent rounds. If he is on the roster, however, and has to be taken off due to injury, he would be ineligible for the next round.
RELIEF OPTIONS
Right-handers Brock Stewart and Roki Sasaki joined the Dodgers in Phoenix on Tuesday after completing their rehab assignments with Triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday. But the Dodgers did not activate Stewart from the injured list as Manager Dave Roberts had indicated they would.
Instead, Stewart threw on flat ground in the outfield with the Dodgers’ pitching coaches and training staff watching.
The group was just “kind of making sure he feels good” before Stewart is activated. Stewart went on the IL in early August with a shoulder injury and received two cortisone shots and a platelet-rich plasma injection before resuming throwing.
“Just some conversations with Brock, making sure he’s put in a position to feel good if he is activated. That’s no guarantee,” Roberts said. “So we feel just giving him an extra day, we’ll have a little more information.”
Sasaki is still expected to be activated before the game on Wednesday. That will leave just five games for the Dodgers to determine if Sasaki can pitch out of the bullpen in the postseason. He had never pitched in relief before making two appearances out of the bullpen for OKC last week.
“I think he’s embraced it,” Roberts said. “I think he’s done a very nice job. I think once he’s in the ’pen, we’ll make decisions on when we use him.”
POSTSEASON PLAN
Shohei Ohtani made his final pitching start of the regular season on Tuesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He has basically been on a once-a-week schedule as a pitcher – and the wild card series will start next Tuesday.
“We don’t know yet,” Roberts said when asked if that was a sign Ohtani was lined up to start Game 1 of a wild card series. “I think it just kind of gives us some options. But the likelihood of him starting a playoff game in that first series are very high.”
UP NEXT
Dodgers (LHP Blake Snell, 5-4, 2.44 ERA) at Diamondbacks (RHP Ryne Nelson, 7-3, 3.34 ERA), Wednesday, 6:40 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM