Los Angeles Dodgers Injury Updates: Juan Uribe

Two infielders on the Los Angeles Dodgers, Juan Uribe and Jerry Hairston Jr.,  have made progress with their respective injuries, and this provides a great deal of relief for the Dodgers. Their solid but oft-injured second baseman Mark Ellis was recently bitten by the injury bug, and Dee Gordon has been poor this season. The Dodgers definitely needed some good news concerning their infield.

Former San Francisco Giants World Series hero Juan Uribe has been cleared to resume baseball-related activities. He has been on the DL for a week after injuring his left wrist, and the good thing is that there is no structural damage.

The veteran 3B is still playing solid defense and is on pace for a 1.5 WAR season. Juan Uribe was worth 3.3 WAR in 2010 in his final year with the Giants, but he fell off and was worth just 0.4 WAR last year.

Utility infielder Jerry Hairston Jr. will start playing in extended spring training games today and has been on the DL since the 7th of May with a strained left hamstring. After playing games today and tomorrow, the 2B/3B/OF will be examined on Wednesday to see if the Dodgers can reactivate him.

Before being injured, Hairston was tearing the cover off the ball with a .403 OBP in 63 plate appearances with some strong defense. He has been worth 1.1 WAR this season after being worth 1.2 WAR last year, and his pre-season ZiPS projection was at 1.2 WAR as well. His in-season projection has shot all the way up to 2.3 WAR, but he has not been worth that much since the 2008 season. However, a solid 1.5 WAR year is a sound estimation for one of the better utility men in baseball.

By the way, the news on Mark Ellis was dire yesterday. If the doctors were five hours too late to relieve pressure in his left log, they would have had to amputate it. Ellis will miss at least six weeks, and the news of what almost happened is shocking.

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