Gavin Lux hasn’t seen the video of the injury that ended his chance of being the Los Angeles Dodgers’ starting shortstop this season and has no plans to watch it.
Lux will miss the season with torn ligaments in his right knee after getting hurt running the bases in a spring training game. The 25-year-old came to camp as the top candidate to replace the departed Trea Turner as the Dodgers’ shortstop.
“That’s one of the hardest parts,” Lux said Tuesday, while fighting back tears and leaning on crutches inside the team’s facility in Glendale, Arizona. “I think every baseball player’s dream is to play shortstop for the Los Angeles Dodgers.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called the injury a huge blow and said his heart goes out the young infielder.
Lux got hurt Monday, Feb. 27, when running between second and third base against San Diego after a groundball was hit. Soon after ducking to avoid a throw, he took a couple of steps before his right knee buckled, he stumbled forward and fell to the ground. He said he felt something pop and his leg went numb.
“I tried to duck out of the way of the throw, and I think my cleat got kind of stuck into the ground a little bit and straightened out a little funky, and bowed out, and yeah, I kind of rolled up on my ankle, too. Freak thing, I don’t even think it’s really avoidable,” Lux said. “In hindsight, probably should have just took the throw to the nose and worn it.”
The Dodgers’ first-round pick in the 2016 amateur draft, Lux played only nine games at shortstop last season while hitting .276 in 129 games, most at second base and some in left field. He led the NL with seven triples, while hitting six homers and driving in 42 runs.
Turner, the starting shortstop last year, left as a free agenct for Philadelphia. That came after Corey Seager left the Dodgers the previous offseason and signed with Texas.
Spring ‘Sho’
Shohei Ohtani pitched 2 1/3 hitless innings in his only spring training outing on the mound for the Angels before he joins Japan for the World Baseball Classic.Ohtani struck out two and walked two, but had no issues with his pitches or the new clock. The two-way star, expected to start the season opener for Los Angeles, didn’t bat.
“The main goal today was to feel out all my pitches. I felt pretty good with all of them,“ Ohtani said through a translator. ”I wanted to ease in. I’m satisfied.”
