Carl Crawford was scheduled to face three live major-league pitchers Tuesday, teammates J.P. Howell, Kenley Jansen and Brandon League. He saw about 20 pitches each from Howell and Jansen, pouncing off one Jansen pitch that bounced off the left-field fence. Then Crawford walked off the field along with coaches and a trainer; League had to face a pair of Dodgers minor-league hitters instead.
Was Crawford hurt?
Fatigued?
Nope. He was going back to hit some more indoors.
“I just go when they tell me to go,” Crawford said.
It was the first time that Crawford had seen live major-league pitching since he was allowed to resume baseball activities last Thursday. The left fielder, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, took more than 120 swings today in the estimation of Dodgers manager Don Mattingly. Most came in the batting cage, doing soft toss and off a tee.
The main takeaway is that Crawford is healthy, but the Dodgers’ $142 million left fielder still isn’t throwing and doesn’t seem close to hitting in a game.
“Your timing at this point is never where you want it to be,” he said.
Crawford could get his timing back soon, based on the volume of pitches he’s seeing. “He got probably 10 at-bats” today, Mattingly said. “That’s five days of spring-training games. As he gets built up, we could hypothetically get eight, nine, 10 at-bats a day on the minor-league side.”
Of course, that all depends on how Crawford feels tomorrow.
“Tomorrow should be a big day for us because the last time he faced live hitting is when he came back the next day and felt (pain),” Mattingly said.