Dodgers: Corey Seager Out for the Season; Machado on the Radar?

 The Dodgers season took an even uglier turn on Monday afternoon as it was announced Corey Seager would miss the rest of the 2018 season.

As if the struggling Dodgers needed anything else to put them deeper in a hole, it was announced on Monday that Corey Seager would miss the rest of the 2018 season.  Seager has been nursing an elbow injury ever since last season but the Dodgers never fully disclosed what his injury was.  There was speculation his injury could involve Tommy John surgery, and that speculation has now proven to be true.

Tomy John surgery is pretty uncommon for position players, but former Dodger Carl Crawford was one of those position players who had to get Tommy John surgery.  The likely timetable for Seager’s return is eight to nine months from now so he should be ready to go for next years spring training.  He has already been ruled out for the remainder of this season so there will be no miracle come back.

Seager’s injury is a brutal blow for the Dodgers as they already have Justin Turner and Yasiel Puig on the disabled list.  With Seager and Turner out the Dodgers are now missing their regular number two and three hitters.  Combine that with a slow start by Chris Taylor, and it’s easy to see why the Dodgers offense has been anemic.

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For Monday night’s series opener with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chris Taylor is starting at shortstop.  One would think that the most logical platoon that will start at shortstop is Chris Taylor against right-handed starting pitchers and Kiké Hernandez starting at short against southpaw starters.  The Dodgers also called up Breyvic Valera who has been on a hot hitting streak at Triple-A who will most likely fill in.

If the Dodgers front office wants to make a bold move to get the Dodgers back to being a World Series contender, there is a perfect match with the Orioles for Manny Machado.  Machado is going to be a free-agent after this season so the Orioles asking price cannot be too high since their division rival the Yankees made the most serious offer this winter.  Machado moved back to shortstop this season, so he has already gotten re-accustomed to playing shortstop again.

Next: Silver linings from the Dodgers bad April

The trade deadline is still a few months away, but with the Dodgers already being seven games back in the division they cannot sit around and hope that someone breaks out.  They need to get bold and go after Machado.  If it costs something like Alex Verdugo, Mitchell White and a couple of other prospects that is a price worth paying.  After all, Kershaw is already showing signs of decline, so his window of opportunity for a World Series title is slipping away.