GLENDALE, Ariz. — The ripple effect of Gavin Lux’s season-ending knee injury is going to be felt across the Dodgers’ roster.
“The initial part of it is a sensitivity towards Gavin and making sure you don’t want to feel like we’re just moving on. That’s not true. But you do have to move on,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, acknowledging that there have been “a lot” of discussion about how to compensate for the loss of the young shortstop.
Veteran Miguel Rojas is expected to take the bulk of starts at shortstop with Lux sidelined but Chris Taylor started there in Wednesday’s Cactus League game against the Texas Rangers and Roberts said Rojas and Taylor will split time there in the spring in order to get Taylor comfortable at the position again.
Taylor has not started a regular-season game at shortstop since the 2021 season. He was confined to the outfield last season after undergoing surgery to remove bone chips from his right elbow in November 2021.
Taylor said his elbow has completely recovered and he has been going through a throwing program this spring that is building his arm strength up to play either infield or outfield.
“I was trying to anticipate something happening so I was prepared,” Taylor said Tuesday.
“I’ve been taking most of my ground balls at second base this offseason. I took them at shortstop today. I don’t think it should take too long to get the feel back over there on the left side.”
Roberts’ early projection is that the playing time at shortstop will be split “80-20, 75-25” with Rojas getting the majority of the starts.
“It’s going to change, I’m sure,” Roberts said, alluding to the inevitable vagaries of a long season.
Taylor will also see time at third base and in left field and will be “less of the center field mix where now we’re looking at the guys that we have – obviously J-Hey (Jason Heyward), (James) Outman, Trayce (Thompson),” Roberts said.
Lux’s injury has shaken up a…
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