clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Carl Crawford, Dan Haren likely out for Australia

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODA

GLENDALE -- It appears the Dodgers will be without both Carl Crawford and Dan Haren in Australia, manager Don Mattingly said on Saturday morning.

Crawford is expecting a child, and the odds are the baby won't be born before the team leaves on Sunday night.

"As of right now, it looks like Carl is staying back," Mattingly said. "The way I understand it, Carl's not going."

Assuming outfielder Mike Baxter will take up the spot created by Matt Kemp starting on the disabled list, putting Crawford on paternity leave would open up a spot for another player to make the trip, perhaps outfielder Nick Buss.

Scott Van Slyke would likely start the opener in left field, against Diamondbacks left-hander Patrick Corbin.

"It depends who's pitching. We'll look at the matchups," Mattingly said. "Scott [Van Slyke] would be one of the guys, against the lefty."

Haren said on Monday he is tired and possibly going through a dead-arm period, and will stay back to pitch in Arizona. Paul Maholm will be the extra starter in Australia, taken to pitch in case something happens to starters Clayton Kershaw or Hyun-jin Ryu.

"Haren as of right now won't be on the plane. Danny knows that, but he also knows that anything can happen in the next two days," Mattingly said. "Maholm we have on our roster going over there, and he's been built up to start. He's one of the guys we're looking at for length, for sure."

With two days of games remaining, the roster has essentially been decided but hasn't been revealed unless something happens to any players on Saturday or Sunday.

"We haven't finalized the roster yet. We continue to go round and round. Some things are just fluid. Everybody has to pitch tomorrow, we have to find out what happens tomorrow and that will give us final decisions," Mattingly said. "We've pretty much decided. ... Everybody that we feel like is going to go, for the most part, 99 percent, know which way we're leaning at this point."