Justin Turner placed on DL, Dodgers option Mike Bolsinger & Zach Lee to Triple-A

LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers had to make a flurry of transactions to clear room on the active roster for their new players, and three-quarters of them happened before Friday night's game against the Angels. The big move was third baseman Justin Turner placed on the 15-day disabled list with a right thigh skin infection.

New pitchers Jim Johnson, Luis Avilan and Alex Wood were activated on Friday, and pitchers Mike Bolsinger and Zach Lee were optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City.

Turner was hospitalized on Tuesday after an infection in his leg didn't heal with antibiotics. He is home now, but still unable to really do much until the infection goes away. He can't even work out yet.

That made the decision to place him on the disabled list an easy one.

"He's going to need extended time just to take care of this thing. The way Stan was talking about it, he needed six or seven days before he could start doing stuff," manager Don Mattingly said. "This thing's got to get closed, we've got to make sure it's healed before we do anything. At that point, we're already looking at 10-11 days."

Turner is hitting .323/.387/.563 with 13 home runs and 20 doubles this year. He was especially hot of late, hitting .459/.487/.757, 17-for-37 with five doubles and two home runs in his last 10 games.

The earliest Turner could be activated from the DL is Aug. 11.

In Turner's absence, Alex Guerrero will get the majority of starts at third base, sharing time with Alberto Callaspo.

"Alex will probably get the lion's share of those at-bats," Mattingly said. "We'll kind of use Berto the same way we used him in the past, try to match him up."

Mat Latos, who hasn't yet been activated, starts Sunday against the Angels. By not activating him yet, the Dodgers are carrying an extra relief pitcher for a game or two. On Friday night, for instance, they have an eight-man bullpen.

Wood said he will start Tuesday, the first game of a three-game series for the Dodgers in Philadelphia. He will be followed by Brett Anderson, then Zack Greinke.

The need to keep Bolsinger ready as a backup starting option for now outweighed the benefits of keeping him in the bullpen.

"We kind of look at him in a number of different ways. But we have to keep him stretched out. I think we'll probably look into creative ways that he's coming out of the bullpen some, so he could fit in our pen as that guy," Mattingly said. "But the main thing is that he's been so good as a starter that we have to keep him stretched out, because you always expect something to happen."

Johnson will wear number 54 with the Dodgers. "They said 53 was taken," he quipped, referring to Don Drysdale's retired number.

Avilan will wear 43, and Wood 57.