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 Trea Turner as the Dodgers’ primary shortstop.
“That’s one of the hardest parts,” Lux said Tuesday, 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.”
Lux got hurt Monday when running between second and third base against San Diego after a groundball was hit to third. Soon after ducking to avoid a throw to second, 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 think my cleat got kind of stuck into the ground a little bit and straightened out a little funky, and bowed out. … 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 nine games at shortstop last season while hitting .276 with six homers and 42 RBIs in 129 games, most at second base and some in left field. He led the NL with seven triples.
Turner left as a free agent for Philadelphia this winter. That came after Corey Seager left the Dodgers the previous offseason and signed with Texas.
Miguel Rojas is now expected to get the bulk of playing time at shortstop for the Dodgers, with Chris Taylor also an option. The 34-year-old Rojas was acquired from Miami in a January trade.
“Crush my rehab and try to be ready for 2024, when it rolls around,” Lux said. “It’s kind of all you can do.”
BIG-MONEY PADRES
On the same day the Padres finalized a $350 million, 11-year contract with All-Star slugger Manny Machado, still-suspended Fernando Tatis Jr. — who is signed a year longer in San Diego — played his first game in nearly 17 months.
Tatis, their former starting shortstop, went 0 for 2 with a walk, a stolen base and scored a run in a 7-5 win over San Francisco. He was the designated hitter in his first game since the 2021 regular-season finale — he has since had wrist and shoulder surgery.
“I saw that it was 500 or something days since I was out there,” Tatis said. “Since the beginning of spring I thought about this. The shoulder and wrist are 100%. Everything feels good.”
Machado’s deal is the fourth-largest in baseball history, and goes through the 2033 season. Tatis signed a $340 million, 14-year contract before the 2021 season.
Tatis missed all of last season. He was about to come back from wrist surgery when he got suspended for 80 games last Aug. 12 after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. Tatis blamed his positive PED test on a cream he said he took for ringworm. He had surgery on his troublesome shoulder during the suspension.
With 20 games left to serve on that ban, the 24-year-old Tatis won’t be eligible to play in the regular season until at least April 20.
Tatis is moving to the outfield after the Padres added four-time All-Star shortstop Xander Bogaerts on an $280 million, 11-year contract in free agency.
