He has improved dramatically from his right-groin problem, and although he isn’t running yet, he is moving laterally without pain. But when asked this morning if there was still enough time for Abreu to compete for the spot, Joe Torre said that Tony always faced long odds because he had missed so much time following sports-hernia and hip surgeries.
“To be honest with you, because he hasn’t played in a year and a half, even if he were completely healthy, he probably would need to go play (regularly in the minors),” Torre said. “He hasn’t done a lot of that lately.”
That means the last infield spot will come down to Blake DeWitt, Juan Castro, Hector Luna, Chin-lung Hu and Doug Mientkiewicz. However, there is a CHANCE that two of those guys could make it, even if the Dodgers go with 12 pitchers, because there is a possibility they will go with only four pure outfielders.