The Los Angeles Dodgers have been playing a bizarre waiting game with Andre Ethier's left oblique injury for several days, but the wait may come to an end as soon as Wednesday. Ethier hurt his oblique on a check swing last Wednesday in San Francisco, and has missed the previous five games.
Manager Don Mattingly for most of the weekend has said Ethier was day-to-day, but also spoke of Ethier in the same terms as Matt Kemp as two who would return on July 13, the first game for the Dodgers after the All-Star break. Perhaps the Dodgers were waiting, playing a man short, in hopes Ethier would be ready for the upcoming four-game series in Arizona, which begins Thursday.
"We're getting closer to that decision that we have to make," Mattingly said. "He swung in the cage today, but he's not going to take BP today, which keeps pushing him back. Common sense keeps telling us to make a good decision."
That good decision may be placing Ethier on the disabled list on Wednesday, as Ethier did feel something in his left oblique on Tuesday while fouling off a pitch in the batting cage. Second baseman Mark Ellis is playing in his fourth minor league rehab game on Tuesday, and the plan was to activate him Thursday in Arizona. But Mattingly hinted that Ellis could be activated as soon as Wednesday, even if only as a reserve for one day, with Ethier going on the disabled list.
"Everybody who has seen Mark feels like he is ready to go," Mattingly said. "He's pretty much had to do everything that you have to do on the field and he's feeling fine."
Ethier, if he does go on the DL, would be eligible to return by July 13.
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