Dodgers Head Athletic Trainer Resigns

Stan Conte, who had been with the Dodgers for the past nine seasons, resigned on Saturday. He had been the Dodgers vice president of medical services and their head athletic trainer.

Conte, who was hired away from the Giants nine years ago, had taken some heat recently for the Dodgers propensity to see players on the DL. Obviously, not all injuries can be blamed on one person, but Dodger fans were highly frustrated with a number of potentially avoidable injuries, namely hamstring injuries, this season.

According to the Dodgers, Conte resigned so he could focus on his research on baseball injury analytics.  In March, Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci wrote about the Dodgers being one of three teams to agree to use a new system called The Profiler, which uses data and not eye tests to “anticipate injuries or downturns in performances”.

Conte’s resignation might spark some more movement. As many of you may be aware of, the Dodgers have essentially gutted their prior scouting lineage and have made many changes to their minor league coaching staffs.

With another disappointing ending to the season, the new front office may be looking to make further changes. Conte resigned, which is quite different from being fired, but it’s looking like there might be a whole lot of new faces in and around the Dodgers next season. Bill Shaikin suggests that Don Mattingly, Mark McGuire and Rick Honeycutt, among others, may be the focus of the next round of changes.

The amount of changes this front office has already made is staggering, so while the games and season are over, a whole new season is about to begin. Free agency, trades coming out of nowhere, potential coaching changes. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’d be willing to be A LOT is going to go down between now and Opening Day 2016.