Charlie Culberson takes a swing in April for the Dodgers. (Juan Ocampo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
Howie Kendrick, LF
Chris Taylor, 2B
Justin Turner, 3B
Adrián González, 1B
Scott Van Slyke, RF
Yasiel Puig, CF
Yasmani Grandal, C
Charlie Culberson, SS
Bud Norris, P
By Jon Weisman
It’s incredible to imagine an entire 25-man roster of players going on the disabled list, but the Dodgers are almost there.
Chris Hatcher has become the 22nd different Dodger to go on the DL this season, with infielder Charlie Culberson called up from Triple-A Oklahoma City to take his roster spot.
Culberson will be at shortstop tonight in place of Corey Seager, who is missing his second straight start after coming down with a stomach virus.
According to Stats LLC, the Dodgers have tied the 2015 Mets for the National League record for most different players on the disabled list and sit five behind the 2012 Red Sox for the MLB record.
With Oklahoma City, Culberson had a .333 on-base percentage and .406 slugging percentage in 193 plate appearances since the Dodgers optioned him to the minors May 18. Starting the season on the Dodgers’ Opening Day roster, he was 7 for 27 with a walk, two doubles and some fine defense.
Hatcher has been sidelined by a left oblique strain, the same injury that knocked him out last summer for two months. The 31-year-old righty has a 5.53 ERA with 43 strikeouts in 40 2/3 innings this season.
Above: The 21 Dodgers who have been on the DL this year before Chris Hatcher. Click to enlarge.
The disabled Dodgers break down (yeah, I saw that as I wrote it) as follows:
Starting pitchers (6): Brett Anderson, Mike Bolsinger, Clayton Kershaw, Brandon McCarthy, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Alex Wood
Swingmen (1): Frankie Montas
Relief pitchers (5): Casey Fien, Yimi Garcia, Chris Hatcher, Josh Ravin, Chin-hui Tsao
Catchers (1): Yasmani Grandal
Infielder-oufielders (4): Alex Guerrero, Kiké Hernández, Howie Kendrick, Scott Van Slyke
Outfielders (5): Carl Crawford, Andre Ethier, Joc Pederson, Yasiel Puig, Trayce Thompson
The Dodgers are 12-6 (.667) with Kershaw on the DL. Weirdly, that’s their highest winning percentage without the services of any of the 22 this year.
suekamm
OMG! Is this a baseball team or the cast of a hospital-based soap opera?
T.A. Barnhart
back in 1995, the Mariners lost Griffey for 2 months & had an incredible season. losing your best player – and in both cases, the best player in the game – makes a team either collapse or get better, fast. we’ll see.
Don Bright
Few of these really shouldn’t count, including Hatcher, as DL trips, we know damn well, it’s just a way to stash a player without having to DFA them (and in some cases they did eventually with Guerrero and Crawford, yeah sure I know the rules this is illegal, but every team does it.
Jack Rosenberg
Hatcher really is injured. It is his neck, from watching all those line drives and home runs being hit off of him.
Don Bright
Nice