Kiké Hernández injury just saved Hyeseong Kim from certain doom as Dodgers scramble

Kiké Hernández's return to the Dodgers after a long stint on the IL lasted two games and four plate appearances before he exited Tuesday's game against the Rockies after the fourth inning. He was diagnosed with a left oblique strain almost immediately after leaving.

Hernández admitted to the media later that he tweaked something during batting practice the day before but thought he could play through it. And then he "felt awful" while hitting a homer in his first at-bat on Tuesday and was wincing after hitting a double his next time up, which forced him to tell Dave Roberts he was in pain.

The Dodgers have yet to make an official roster move, but Roberts confirmed that Hernández will be going back onto the IL, and Alex Freeland is coming back from Oklahoma City.

But Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic offered even more insight. Freeland was already LA-bound when Hernández got hurt. The Dodgers were taxiing him they "evaluated the slumping Hyeseong Kim's tenuous place on the active roster."

Fans' previous thinking was that Kim would have until Tommy Edman returns to try to work his way through his hitting woes. It probably wouldn't have changed Kim's Triple-A fate, but it could've made him look like the best first call in the event of another injury.

Clearly, the Dodgers have been dissatisfied enough with Kim that they were ready to take action even sooner.

The Athletic reveals Alex Freeland was on the way to take Hyeseong Kim's Dodgers roster spot even before Kiké Hernández injury

As soon as the move becomes official, this will be the third iteration of the Kim-Freeland roster battle from spring training through these first 50-something games of the season.

It's getting a little exhausting, because everyone knows what the outcome will be. Eventually, Hernández and Edman will both come back (Kiké is hopeful he'll only need 2-3 weeks, and Edman's three week clock started on Tuesday.

Kim hasn't been hitting well in the majors (.159 average and .399 OPS in his last 15 games entering play on Wednesday), but Freeland has already proven he has difficulty translating Triple-A success to the majors.

It's all just a little repetitive. Eventually, both Kim and Freeland will find themselves back in Oklahoma City, and it's always just been a matter of who gets cut first. It's the same thing now, but the novelty has somewhat worn off. We'd much rather just have Kiké and Edman back already.

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