Dodgers Injury Updates: Max Muncy breakthrough, Mookie Betts timeline

The Dodgers lineup is looking pretty worse for wear at the moment. Mookie Betts, Max Muncy, Miguel Rojas, and Chris Taylor are all on the IL, and Freddie Freeman is away from the team on family leave. Consequently, LA has had to resort to some wacky lineup configurations, the worst of which was argubly a two-game stretch of employing Andy Pages at cleanup, followed by the likes of Jason Heyward, Kiké Hernández, Cavan Biggio, and Austin Barnes.

Such is the state of Dodger baseball at the moment, but thankfully, there do seem to be reinforcements headed back to LA in the near future.

Muncy has been on a roller coaster with a right oblique strain he sustained over two months ago. The Dodgers seemed to hit a wall with his progress, unable to figure out what exactly the issue was (his tests came back showing no signs of structural damage) while he's started and stopped baseball activities. However, Dave Roberts said on Wednesday that Muncy had a "breakthrough" after seeing a chiropractor and would start swinging a bat again on Thursday.

Could all Muncy have needed this whole time was a good old fashioned back crack? Frustrating if true, but at least it means that he's actually starting to move again.

Dodgers Injury Updates: Max Muncy breakthrough from oblique strain, Mookie Betts taking BP

More good news, and maybe even better news: Mookie Betts has started taking batting practice, and per Dave Roberts "could be back in the next couple weeks." Let's all take a moment to breathe a collective sigh of relief.

The Dodgers need Betts back, more than any of their many other players on the IL. He went down in June as the odds-on favorite to be your NL MVP this season, and although he should (of course) be given some runway to ramp up to full force upon a return, hopefully just having him back on the field will do wonders for this team.

Although it's unclear whether or not Betts will return to shortstop, the real issue here is the lineup, and Betts' .304 average, .405 OBP, and .359 average with runners in scoring position are all very much needed to get this team back to where it needs to be for the last couple months of the regular season.

The Dodgers lineup doesn't look like much of a threat at all right now, but it definitely will be when Muncy and Betts return.