{"id":181298,"date":"2026-02-17T10:12:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/181298\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T10:12:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T10:12:17","slug":"dodgers-tommy-edman-wont-be-ready-for-opening-day-not-going-to-rush-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/181298\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers’ Tommy Edman won’t be ready for opening day. ‘Not going to rush it’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PHOENIX\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Position players reported to spring training at Camelback Ranch for the Dodgers<\/a> on Monday, but manager Dave Roberts<\/a> revealed that the team will be without its versatile second baseman and utilityman Tommy Edman<\/a> when it opens the season against the Arizona Diamondbacks at home on March 26.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old Edman underwent ankle surgery during the offseason after being limited to 97 games in 2025 in his first full season with the Dodgers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think just looking at where his ankle is at, trying to play the long view that you don\u2019t want to have any regression or setbacks,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cSo, how can we be methodical with it? Just for me, knowing that he\u2019s just taking swings is enough. We\u2019re not going to rush it. We want to put him in the best position, so I think it just kind of became [clearer] very recently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edman will open the season on the injured list, something he is at peace with. He felt that a return before opening day was a bit ambitious, and that it would be better to err on the side of caution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was always kind of a stretch, just due to the nature of the injury and the timing of the surgery and everything,\u201d Edman said. \u201cI think, having been out of the boot for a little over a month now, I was just kind of waiting to see how it progressed, and everything has gone exactly on-schedule. We were kind of leaving opening day open, just in case it happened to feel way better than expected. Everything\u2019s on the expected schedule so far. As I get into more baseball stuff, I still have to work into the adaptation of volume. As the volume goes up, the swelling kind of increases a little bit, so I\u2019ve got to take it slow and let the progress play out the way it was planned all along, instead of trying to speed it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Edman is slow-playing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe took some swings a couple days ago, [from] both sides,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cHe did some skipping, some light jogging, I think it was. He\u2019s getting his body into baseball shape, so obviously he\u2019s not going to be ready for the start of camp. He\u2019s in that same bucket of, \u2018When he\u2019s ready, he\u2019s ready.\u2019 But each day, there\u2019s been progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evan Phillips excited to be back<\/p>\n

Days after signing a one-year contract to return to the Dodgers \u2014 despite being non-tendered earlier in the offseason \u2014 Evan Phillips<\/a> expressed relief at being back.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The offseason] was quiet for a little bit,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cI leaned on my agent to be patient and trust that things were going to work out and we\u2019re certainly glad that we\u2019re back. It was definitely a very, very wild ride this offseason. It feels like I never left, so it\u2019s kind of weird to get all the handshakes and hugs, but it\u2019s just another spring training to me. I\u2019m certainly glad to be back in Dodger blue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes told reporters Sunday that Phillips should return to the Dodgers sometime in the middle of the season. He underwent Tommy John surgery last June.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I\u2019ve been] doing long toss a few times a week, hoping to get on the bullpen or on the mound for a bullpen next month,\u201d Phillips said. \u201cI\u2019ll start that mound progression here in the next couple of weeks. I think, actually, Tuesday I\u2019ll throw off of the mound for the first time, but it won\u2019t be to a catcher or anything. It\u2019ll just be a catcher standing up and there\u2019s a slow progression, week by week. So [there will be] plenty of steps ahead that\u2019s going to keep me busy here in Arizona, but I\u2019m definitely looking forward to that progression.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Position players reported to spring training at Camelback Ranch for the Dodgers on Monday, but manager Dave Roberts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[9003,14080,85963,426,85962,48,52,51,47,50,49,10252,28259,43223,424,278,1435,36991,6133,29224,430],"class_list":{"0":"post-181298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks","9":"tag-bit","10":"tag-couple-day","11":"tag-dodgers","12":"tag-evan-phillips","13":"tag-la","14":"tag-la-headlines","15":"tag-la-news","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","18":"tag-los-angeles-news","19":"tag-mound","20":"tag-offseason","21":"tag-opening-day","22":"tag-roberts","23":"tag-season","24":"tag-side","25":"tag-spring-training","26":"tag-tommy-edman","27":"tag-volume","28":"tag-week"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}