They were both learning to do something they had never done before, Mookie Bets playing shortstop full-time and Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitching in the major leagues.
Their respective classes were suddenly interrupted on Sunday.
Bets broke his left hand when he was hit by a 98 mph fastball during the Dodgers win 3-0 about the Kansas City Royals. Yamamoto was placed on the injured list with a tight rotator cuff.
Manager Dave Roberts said he expected both players to return this season, but what he forgot to mention was how unlikely they would return as the players the Dodgers hoped they would be.
How can the Dodgers count on Betts to play shortstop at a championship level in October after missing the next few weeks?
How can they count on Yamamoto to be the No. 2 starter in the playoffs after he was broken just two months into the season?
In both cases, they cannot.
See more information: Mookie Betts will miss several weeks after suffering a broken hand in the Dodgers’ victory
This shouldn’t cost the Dodgers the National League West — they lead the division by eight games — but if they really want to contend for the World Series, they’re going to have to make some deals between now and July 30. deadline.
Here’s the problem: There may be no deals for them to strike.
The Brewers are in first place and are unlikely to trade their shortstop, even though he is a free agent this winter.
The two-time All-Star is having the worst season of his career and the Toronto Blue Jays may only want to move him if there is an immediate fire sale.
The pitching market is equally, if not more, uninspiring.
Corbin Burnes It is Dylan Cease, the two best pitchers who should be part of the market, have already been traded. Burnes went from the Brewers to the Baltimore Orioles and Cease from the White Sox to the San Diego Padres.
Luis Severino of the New York Mets and Tyler Anderson of Angels number to be moved in the coming months, but none of them are considered better than the pitchers the Dodgers already have.
The Dodgers shouldn’t be chasing quantity, of which they already have plenty. They should be looking for quality.
The lack of high-level shooting has cost them in recent seasons and the more than US$500 million they invested in Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow it was an indirect recognition of this. Yamamoto and Glasnow, however, presented great risks.
Glasnow has never made more than 21 starts in a season or pitched more than 120 innings. He made his 15th start of the season by throwing seven scoreless innings on Sunday, the most consecutive starts he has ever made without suffering an injury.
There were also questions about the durability of Yamamoto, who is 5-foot-9 and pitches only once a week in Japan. Yamamoto rarely threw his slider in his home country as he believed it caused discomfort in his elbow. He didn’t hit a single slider in any of his first six starts with the Dodgers, but the higher level of competition forced him to adjust.
Yamamoto threw the pitch a season-high 13 times during a recent game against the New York Yankees in which he threw seven scoreless innings. He postponed his next start by three days. When he finally returned to the mound on Saturday, his fastball velocity dropped and he lasted just two innings.
Was the slider responsible for his injury?
“That’s a fair question,” Roberts said.
See more information: Clayton Kershaw is ‘further along’ than expected in his shoulder rehab
Does he need the pitch to be effective at this level?
Considering Yamamoto relies heavily on a four-seam fastball, splitter and curveball, Roberts said, “having something that’s tough and turns left, that’s certainly another weapon.”
“But there’s a balance: If this is something that causes discomfort, then you need to think long and hard about it,” Roberts said.
Yamamoto will refrain from releasing in the coming weeks, according to Roberts.
“We’ll see where we go from there,” Roberts said.
The timetable for Betts’ return was also up in the air, although Betts said he should have a better idea after a visit scheduled for Monday with hand specialist Steven Shin.
Shohei Ohtani said in Japanese about seeing Betts fall to the ground after being hit by a heater delivered by Royals right-hander Dan Altavilla: “I think it was a difficult moment for the team as a whole. I think he is an indispensable player.”
In attack, certainly.
However, on defense, Betts remains a below-average shortstop. He last played the position regularly in high school and didn’t move there this year until just before opening day. Betts tried to make up for his experience by shooting before almost every game.
Every game Betts misses will cost him a chance to make up the ground he lost while playing right field and second base during the previous 10 years of his major league career.
“As we pray for his return,” Ohtani said, “I would like us to cover him as a team.”
Ohtani didn’t say that, but the responsibility to do so doesn’t rest solely with the players. Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and the small army of assistants who make up the front office share the burden. They will have to find players in a down market.
Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the beginning of each series.
This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.
