Dodgers News: JD Martinez Provides Unnerving Update on Groin Injury
It's been a weird couple of weeks for J.D. Martinez, who's only started five games in August as he's dealing with tightness in his groin area.
Martinez got an epidural when the team thought his back may have been the issue, but it didn't help as he was scratched from Thursday night's series finale against the Brewers.
Martinez was back in the lineup on Friday night, and is expected to play in the night game on Saturday of the doubleheader that is happening due to Hurricane Hilary.
However, Martinez did tell reporters ahead of Friday's game that if this injury lingers, he may just bite the bullet and hit the injured list.
“It’s one of those things where, if it doesn’t get better soon, we gotta make a decision here,” Martinez said.
Martinez made it clear that an IL situation could be a possibility if it flared up again.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was also asked about the situation ahead of Friday's game, however, and said he has no interest in putting Martinez on the IL unless they think he won't be able to play for the 10 days.
"If it’s something that we feel is going to be a couple days or a day situation in this case I just don’t think it’s worth conceding nine or 10 days if it’s not needed," Roberts said. "It’s not like it’s much of a cost to carry a guy that doesn’t play for four or five or six days. We’ve been through that before and I think the record shows it didn’t really affect us."
The Dodgers have given themselves a ton of breathing room in the NL West, so it could make some sense to let Martinez heal on the injured list and get fully healthy ahead of the stretch run.
However, Roberts and the Dodgers seem to want to keep him up for as long as they can, so as long as he remains healthy and says he can play, he won't be going anywhere.
