Are baseball players the clumsiest off field athletes of any major professional sport? It’s a question worth asking after Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Mookie Betts suffered a fractured toe late Wednesday night after he stubbed his toe against a piece of furniture at his house.
X-Rays revealed a small fracture in the tip of Betts’ 2nd toe which kept him out of the lineup Friday vs. the Yankees, and will force him to miss Saturday and Sunday as well.
“It’s going to be one of those situations per his [pain] tolerance,” Roberts told reporters. LA’s training staff doesn’t believe that he will require an IL stint, and that playing on it shouldn’t make it any worse than it currently is.
The injury is the latest in a long line of kitchen, bathroom, and bicycle related mishaps which have knocked out star players for multiple games in Major League Baseball over the past several seasons. Betts’ teammate Freddie Freeman required ankle surgery to fix an injury suffered while entering the shower a year ago.
2022 was a truly bizarre year as, then a reliever with the New York Yankees, Aroldis Chapman hit the injured list after suffering a leg infection from a tattoo he got. Red Sox starter Chris Sale managed to fracture his wrist in a bicycle accident that same year. Meanwhile Max Scherzer’s rehab process suffered a setback when he was bitten by one of his dogs at home.
Jose Quintana suffered a laceration which required stitches while washing dishes, Hunter Strickland broke his nose due to a barbell mishap while working out, Carlos Correa suffered a rib injury receiving a massage at home, Blake Snell was moving furniture in his bathroom and fractured a toe… The list goes on. And those are just some of the injuries within the last 5 years…
On the season, Betts is hitting .254 with 42 runs scored, 31 RBIs, 5 SB, and 8 HRs, after shifting back to shortstop in 2025. How he responds to treatment and manages his pain will be a situation worth monitoring moving forward.
The Dodgers continue their weekend series against the Yankees on Saturday in a prime time 7:15pm ET first pitch.
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