SAN FRANCISCO -- Ten days after taking a foul tip off his right hand in Pittsburgh, catcher Will Smith was placed on the 10-day injured list ahead of Saturday night's game against the Giants at Oracle Park. The move is retroactive to Sept. 10, so Smith will be eligible to be activated next Saturday.
"There’s just not enough improvement," manager Dave Roberts said before Saturday night's game in San Francisco. "The hope is, when he’s eligible to come off, we can activate him. But just where he’s at, it makes the most sense.”
Chuckie Robinson was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City to take Smith's spot on the roster. He'll back up Ben Rortvedt, who will take over as the starter with rookie Dalton Rushing also on the IL with a right shin contusion.
Smith sustained a bone bruise after his right hand was struck by a foul tip on Sept. 3 at PNC Park. He returned to the starting lineup on Tuesday after missing five games. Because X-rays, a CT scan and an MRI came back clean, the Dodgers kept him on the active roster instead of placing him on the injured list.
In hindsight, Roberts said, the Dodgers would have put Smith on the IL when he first got hurt had they known he would still be ailing 10 days later.
The Dodgers had been hopeful that Smith would be able to catch back-to-back days once he returned to the lineup, but 15 minutes before first pitch on Wednesday, his hand began to swell up. The team was worried that his health would be compromised if he played, so he was a late scratch. He was also out of the lineup for Friday's series opener in San Francisco.
Roberts said Smith would be available "in some capacity" and could catch in an emergency situation on Friday. But even with the game tied in the late innings, the All-Star catcher was not called upon to pinch-hit. The Dodgers were eventually walked off on a Patrick Bailey grand slam in 10 innings.
While Los Angeles had been hopeful that Smith would not need to go on the IL, making a move was not completely off the table if the catcher did not continue to improve.
"We’re hopeful that one week will settle it down," Roberts said. "I think the thing is, we remain hopeful because all the scans are negative so we feel good that just some time off, he’ll be back to feeling back to normal. We just didn’t want him to have to go through this ... being sore, ailing, to compromise the throwing mechanics, the hitting mechanics, all that stuff.”
Roberts has acknowledged that Smith, who has been arguably the Dodgers' steadiest hitter this season, will likely have to manage the bone bruise in his hand for the rest of the regular season and beyond. The 30-year-old entered Saturday batting .296 with a .901 OPS in 110 games.
Rortvedt, pressed into starting-catcher duty last week when Smith and Rushing went down with injuries in the span of three days, has earned praise for his work with the pitching staff. It also won't be long until Rushing is back, as he's on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City and is expected to be activated when he's eligible on Tuesday.
Still, there's no easy replacement for Smith's bat. Entering Saturday, his 153 wRC+ ranked second to only Shohei Ohtani (169) among Dodgers hitters.
With the Dodgers fighting to extend their 2 1/2-game lead over the Padres in the NL West (entering play Saturday), they'll be in the best position to make another deep postseason run if their starting catcher is able to come back strong.