Elian Herrera On His Way To Los Angeles?

On Monday we might see a rather different Dodgers roster, and that is independent of the results of Matt Kemp's MRI exam. Elian Herrera might be on his way to Los Angeles, as Tony Jackson of ESPN LA reported.

Herrera, 27, hit .358/.381/.550 in 28 games in Albuquerque and has played all over the diamond the last few years with games at shortstop, second base, third base, center field, and left field. The Isotopes' leadoff man was held out of Sunday's game.

Jackson speculates that Herrera could be replacing Dee Gordon, who has struggled mightily this season, hitting .207/.250/.273. While sending Gordon down is certainly a possibility, manager Don Mattingly has spent the better part of this week defending Gordon, confident that he will come out of his slump and be the hitter the team thinks he can be.

But after Sunday's game we did have to wait longer than usual to get into the clubhouse, as Mattingly was meeting with general manager Ned Colletti and his staff for quite some time. Maybe Mattingly was the one who needed convincing to give Gordon some time in Triple A, but I'm just speculating here.

Another candidate to be optioned could be Justin Sellers, who Mattingly said before the game today given their original plan was on track to get something like 100 at-bats over the course of the season. The team would rather have Sellers play every day. At 26, he is not a prospect but someone who could still benefit from the development.

The other issue is that Herrera is not on the 40-man, so the club would have to make a corresponding roster move.

Honestly, I did not see this coming at all.

UPDATE (11:30 p.m. PDT May 13): Tony Jackson tweeted that the Herrera move appears contingent upon Kemp going on the disabled list. We will find out the MRI results for Kemp on Monday.