Alek Thomas will play one more rehab game with Triple-A Reno before the Diamondbacks decide on activating him from the 10-day injured list. He’ll play Reno’s game against the Sacramento River Cats on Monday, then the team will decide what the next step is. It’s unclear if that means he’ll be back in time for the Dodgers series, or if they’ll wait to activate them when they travel down to San Diego.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The key will be ensuring that when Thomas comes off the IL, the hamstring is no longer an issue. He’s already suffered one setback in his recovery, delaying his return eight weeks. During the ramp-up of his second rehab attempt, Thomas has soreness in his legs. That pushed the timeframe back a couple days. With those two things in mind, it makes sense for the team to be cautious with their center fielder.
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo told reporters, including Jack Sommers from Inside the Diamondbacks, on Sunday that the decision was suggested by Thomas himself.
“This is all on Alek,” Lovullo told Sommers. “I asked him last night if this was more swing fundamental, something that was bothering him about his game that he wanted to feel. He said no, this is more about his body and him getting in tune with where he’s at with his body.”
The good news is Thomas has been able to test his hamstrings when running the bases. He has successfully run first-to-thirds in his rehab stint with Reno.
“From what I understood he went first to third about as good as anybody and made comments about how good that felt, and he wanted to try to duplicate it one more time,” said Lovullo.
When Thomas comes back to the roster, there will be a place for him to play. Most likely it will be a similar playing time situation as the first four games of the season. Thomas will get the lion’s share of the remaining starts in center field, although Jake McCarthy’s emergence at the plate may affect Corbin Carroll and Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s playing time. It will all depend on the roster move the team makes over the next week.
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Michael McDermott covers the Arizona Diamondbacks and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @MichaelMcDMLB
