2013 Dodgers player profile: Justin Sellers, further down the depth chart

The good news for Justin Sellers is that he feels healthy and fully recovered from back surgery and the injury that pretty much wiped out his season after May.

"After rehabbing from surgery, I started just getting in baseball mode," Sellers said. "After those two days blew by, it's calmed down tremendously."

Those two days were when Sellers was arrested for reckless driving and evading arrest at his home in West Sacramento, something he said was "a big misunderstanding."

The bad news is that Sellers, who made the opening day roster in 2012, has seen his chances of making the team decrease drastically since he last played. The arrest won't have much to do with it, but rather the additions in the last year of Hanley Ramirez, Luis Cruz, Elian Herrera, Nick Punto, and Skip Schumaker.

Sellers has hit .204/.283/.323 in 189 plate appearances in parts of two seasons, and has just 19 hits in his last 113 at-bats.

Mattingly on Feb. 18 was talking about Yasiel Puig's chances of making the roster and reflected back to his own playing days, but the words also sound applicable to Sellers, now wearing number 72.

"You have number 62, chances aren't real good," Mattingly said.

Trivia

Sellers was ranked number 98 in Baseball America's top 100 high school list in 2005, out of Marina High School in Huntington Beach. He committed to play at Cal State Fullerton but instead signed with the Athletics, who drafted him in the sixth round that year.

Contact Status

Sellers has one year, 48 days of service time, and has all three option years remaining.

Previous Player Profiles

2012: Dr. Not-so-Strangeglove

Stats

2013 Outlook

Sellers could stick around because of his ability to play shortstop, as insurance in case Ramirez goes down for an extended period of time and if Dee Gordon's not quite ready. But my guess is that Sellers doesn't see time in the big leagues this year before September. My guess is 2-for-8 in limited duty for Sellers.

What is your guess for Sellers? Be sure to guess BA/OBP/SLG, and any other thing you wish to guess.