Tuesday, March 04

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Recovering from Tommy John surgery is a physical and mental challenge. But it can also be boring, especially in the early stages when baseball activities are limited. 

Dodgers right-hander Kyle Hurt, who underwent Tommy John surgery last July, found an unexpected hobby while he was in that phase of his recovery. 

Hurt, like many rehabbing players, was trying to figure out how to occupy the hours in his everyday life that he would normally fill with baseball, had he been healthy. Then one day, he saw some LEGO sets while he was in Target with his girlfriend and thought, why not give it a try?

"It's just funny," Hurt said, "because I never would have seen myself doing LEGOs. And then I think I got to that boredom extent where I was like, 'Oh, I'll just do it.'"

Hurt didn't want to build something too ambitious on his first try, so he started with a Batmobile -- "it was ages 8 and up, because I wanted to start slow," he said. After that, he got more LEGO sets and started really getting into it.

LEGOs not only kept Hurt busy and his mind occupied, but he also felt that they helped him physically in the early stages of his rehab. 

When he started building LEGOs, he was still wearing a brace on his elbow and had limited mobility. One of the first exercises Hurt did after his procedure was putting a rubber band on his right hand, then alternating between extending his fingers and curling them in. Another exercise involved holding and squeezing a paper clip -- he had to start small to rebuild strength and dexterity in his hand. 

Hurt found that building LEGOs helped in that sense. Handling the bricks allowed him to work on honing his fine motor skills in a more entertaining way than by only doing the rehab exercises. 

"I brought it up to the training staff, and they were like, 'Oh, that's great,'" Hurt said. "Because you're learning to use your hands again. My fingers were numb for a while, so it helped, being very precise with the LEGOs and all that."

The most complex thing Hurt has built so far has been a replica of Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet, as featured in Marvel's Avengers movies. He estimated that it took him between four and five days to put that together. Another big build was a LEGO Sorting Hat, which he made for his mom, who's a big fan of the Harry Potter series.

It hasn't been all fun and games, though. Hurt also took an online class last fall at USC, where he went to college before being selected by the Marlins in the fifth round of the 2020 MLB Draft. He still needs some more credits, but he plans on eventually finishing his degree in communications. 

Hurt has had a little less time on his hands lately with Spring Training in full swing, even though he's a limited participant. He's playing catch, and feels on schedule as he steadily ticks up his intensity week by week, but there's still a long road ahead. 

Once the Dodgers break camp, and there's less activity around the spring complex, Hurt thinks he'll get back into his LEGOs hobby. And slowly but surely, he'll build back to where he needs to be on the mound, too.

With just a week remaining until the Dodgers' final Cactus League game, I took another stab at predicting how the Opening Day roster might look.

The biggest unknowns are at second base and center field. Manager Dave Roberts said the team is "still sussing it out" when it comes to those two positions, but the outlook is also "pretty similar" to what it was in the early days of camp.

Hyeseong Kim, Andy Pages and James Outman are essentially competing for the final position player spot. None of the three has had a strong start at the plate this spring, but that only holds so much weight in the Dodgers' decision-making process.

"I personally don’t look at spring results," Roberts said. "There’s no game planning, from the pitcher, from the hitter, both sides. … For me, history, track record is more paramount. It weighs better. But I still evaluate each day."

That said, I currently have Pages making the roster, because he has the best recent track record in the big leagues of the three. At the same time, I think the Dodgers would benefit greatly from a left-handed-hitting utility option, if they feel that Kim's glove is valuable enough to make up for the question marks surrounding his bat at the Major League level.

Tuesday marks an exciting day at Camelback Ranch, as Roki Sasaki is slated to pitch in his first Cactus League game. First pitch against the visiting Reds is set for 6:05 p.m. MT (5:05 p.m. PT), and the game will be broadcast on SportsNet LA, MLB Network and MLB.TV (for out-of-market viewers).

Sasaki will not be the starter; he'll follow Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who is looking to complete about four innings. Then Sasaki will enter, with the goal of going at least three innings. 

Tickets for Tuesday's game, as well as the rest of the Dodgers' remaining slate at Camelback Ranch, can be found here.

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