Alexander Guerrero Is Now A Dodger For Real

As it turns out Alexander Guerrero is now officially a Dodger. he’s been indoctrinated. How so? According to Ken Gurnick, Guerrero is now dealing with a strained hamstring, he suffered while playing in Dominican Winter ball. The Dodgers just signed this guy and already he has pulled a hamstring. He should fit right in with the rest of the boys.

Once Carl Crawford, Matt Kemp, and Andre Ethier all strain their hamstrings in spring training, and you know they will, Guerrero can join them on the disabled list so he won’t feel left out. Think of it as initiation. Every Dodger must strain or pull their hamstring or hamstrings once. Because I mean come on, we all know all of those players will have strained hamstrings at least once during the regular season. Guerrero will have company at least. (Jokes!)

According to Ken Gurnick this could delay or impact the Dodger’s decision as to which position he will play. The club is still unsure whether to place him at second base or shortstop. With a hamstring injury the wise choice would be to put him at second base, in my opinion. Guerrero’s range could be severely limited, and you need full range of motion to play a position like shortstop. At least more so than the keystone. I’ve said before I am against moving Hanley Ramirez off of his natural shortstop position. I don’t like making Hanley feel uncomfortable. We don’t want to rock the boat when there is no need to. The Dodgers are going to need another infielder no matter what anyways, and I have a feeling that Juan Uribe is not going to be brought back. Take note, I would love to give Uribe a one-year deal, but we’ve heard he wants a three-year contract, and I don’t think the Dodgers are going to want to go down that route again.

So Guerrero is banged up already, and we’re not even to Christmas yet. Joy! I don’t think this is anything serious as much as I like to crack the jokes. I’m going to assume he’ll be ready to go by spring training at the worst. But with Guerrero unable to play winter ball for the moment, then the Dodgers will be unable to make a determination on where they want him to play. That’s the main point of having him play winter ball, to evaluate his defense, and figure out whether he’s better at second base, or short. If the Dodgers are unable to complete their internal evaluations on him, then that could delay their offseason shopping. This is something we’ll continue to monitor as the winter drags on.