Andy Pages is moving in the right direction, and the Dodgers sound optimistic his bat will be back in play soon.
Pages, who has been on the 10-day injured list since Aug. 22 with a left hand fracture, is recovering well enough that he should begin swinging in the next couple of days. Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates said as much during an interview with David Vassegh on AM 570 L.A. Sports.
“I think he starts swinging pretty soon,” Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates said in an interview with David Vassegh on AM 570 L.A. Sports.
“He was in the dugout and said he doesn’t feel any pain, his hand feels really good. Which was encouraging to come back from the road trip and touch base other than text.
“He was in great spirits. He was really good.
I think he starts swinging here coming up shortly. They said the surgery went really well, so he was excited by it.
He expected to be more sore and more pain, but he’s feeling good. … He hasn’t swung yet as far as hitting the ball, but he said in the next couple days or so he was going to practice dry swings at first.
“I think there’s a progression. You’ll have to talk to the trainers for the specifics of the progression, but he said there’s no pain.”
Dave Roberts had already described the move as a “minor procedure” to place a screw in Pages’ hand, and the original recovery window was four to five weeks. That timeline was expected whether surgery ended up being necessary or not.
The Dodgers believed Pages could be ready in October, and the signs now point that way.
Pages fractured the hand when he was hit by a pitch from Pittsburgh Pirates starter Bubba Chandler on Aug. 21.
In his absence, the Dodgers first mixed and matched with Alek Thomas and Kiké Hernández before settling on Tommy Edman as the main option in center field. Thomas was sent back to Triple-A Oklahoma City on Tuesday as part of a busy stretch of roster moves tied to the expanded roster.
Los Angeles did not bring up an outfielder in those transactions. Instead, the club added Alex Freeland, Will Smith, Dalton Rushing and Justin Wrobleski.
The update matters because Pages has been a difference-maker on both sides of the ball. He leads all National League players with 17 defensive runs saved and ranks second only to Ceddanne Rafaela of the Boston Red Sox, who has 19.
At the plate, Pages is hitting .272/.338/.458 with 25 doubles, 21 home runs and 80 RBI. The first-time All-Star was on track to set career bests in doubles, home runs, RBI and on-base plus slugging percentage before the injury interrupted his season.
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