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The Dodgers on Saturday decided the hamstring injury suffered by Hanley Ramirez was enough to send him to the disabled list. The Dodgers recalled shortstop Dee Gordon from Triple-A Albuquerque before Saturday's game, as first reported by Jon Heyman of CBS Sports and Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. Bob Nightengale reported the Dodgers plan to play Gordon exclusively at shortstop in place of Ramirez.
Ramirez injured his left hamstring while running the bases on Friday night against the Giants, appearing to hurt himself at almost exactly the same location where he injured his right thumb at the World Baseball Classic in March.
A torn ligament in his thumb required surgery for Ramirez, who missed the first 24 games of the season before getting activated on Monday. Ramirez hit .455 (5-for-11) with two doubles and a home run in his brief return with the Dodgers.
The Dodgers passed over Gordon to replace Ramirez on the opening day roster, and in a surprise move went with the defensively oriented Justin Sellers at shortstop.
"It was strictly defensive. With Dee, it was a matter of staying with the plan, letting him develop and get everything together, rather than throw him back in there for a short period of time," manager Don Mattingly said on opening day. "We've always looked at Sells as kind of a safety valve at short, because we knew he'd catch it. Offensively Sells has not shown, at this point, he'll be a great offensive player, but he's still a guy we feel like could handle the bat, but his approach has to stay solid. We wanted to be able to catch it, and we were willing to sacrifice offense for it."
In 27 games, Sellers has hit .194/.270/.254 this season, even worse than the .228/.280/.281 line put up by Gordon in 87 games in 2012.
In 2013, Gordon has hit .314/.397/.431 for Triple-A Albuquerque, with 19 runs scored in 25 games, and has stolen 14 bases in 16 attempts.
Gordon might not be the only one coming, as second baseman Mark Ellis, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, and outfielder Carl Crawford are all injured to varying degrees. Of that trio, Ellis is the most likely to hit the disabled list, as he has already missed six games and been out for seven days.