Dodgers: Andre Ethier Timeline and Future Role

I’m sure we all remember the glory days of Andre Ethier’s Dodger career. His clutch walk-off hits will always be engraved in my mind, as will his silly antics such as destroying a baseball bat and flipping off the cameras. However, at this moment in time, the only thought about Andre Ethier is his health and if he will be able to contribute to the team once again.

Ethier has yet to see playing time with the Dodgers this year after suffering an injury in Spring Training for the second straight year. After fracturing his tibia last season, Ethier has been dealing with a herniated disk and is slowly starting to begin baseball activities again.

At the beginning of the season, Ethier was expected back by June, but obviously, this has not been the case and only started seeing live pitching in June. Since then, his back has recovered, and it looks like he is ready to work his way back to LA for one final run with the team.

Ethier began a rehab assignment with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes two weeks ago and saw playing time in three games. In that time, the 35-year old went 2-8 with a walk and a RBI, but more importantly did not suffer any setbacks. Last week, Ethier continued his rehab in AA with the Tulsa Drillers. There he is expected to appear in back-to-back games and will see better competition.

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The Dodgers are not looking for Andre to be the guy he has been in the past. They are looking for him to come back healthy and stay healthy. The combination of his age and injury history is a bad sign at this point of his career and will be a tough battle even for one month of the season.

The hope is to use up the maximum 20-day period for rehab assignments and join the Dodgers after September 1^st when rosters expand. While in LA, he will be utilized as a bench piece and could get a start every once in a while. But, the biggest decision will come when its time to make room for players on the playoff roster.

While it may be tough to leave a fan favorite off the roster in October, it is the best choice for the team. Ethier will more than likely not be able to provide the quality production off the bench that the Dodgers hope to get out of him. Then again, we thought the same thing last season, and Ethier got six at-bats against the Nationals and homered in one of them. It’s always hard to count out captain clutch.

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The best thing we can do at this time is to enjoy Ethier for the last month of the season, and possibly the last month of his career. He has brought us so much joy as Dodger fans in years past and, along with Kershaw, is the last remaining member of the Matt Kemp, Russell Martin, James Loney era.