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After starting his first game for the Los Angeles Dodgers since Sept. 13 in Game 1 of the NLCS Friday against the St. Louis Cardinals, Andre Ethier will miss Saturday’s Game 2 due to an ankle injury that has hampered him in recent weeks, according to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.

Ethier ended the regular season hitting .272 with 12 home runs and 52 RBI, but it’s likely that his production would have been better had he not been limited in September. After hitting .312 or better in both July and August, Ethier hit just .211 in 38 at-bats in the season’s final month.

Skip Schumaker was Los Angeles’ starting center fielder in the NLDS against the Atlanta Braves, and he will stay in that role Saturday against his former team. Schumaker hasn’t hit particularly well in the playoffs, posting a .214 batting average and two RBI, but he is a defensive upgrade over Ethier.

As effective as Ethier can be at the plate, particularly against right-handed pitching, center field is not his natural position. Ethier failed to make a difficult play on a deep fly ball off the bat of Carlos Beltran in Game 1, and it resulted in a two-run double that tied the game up.

Ethier’s ankle ailment may have compromised his ability to make that play, and it could have very well been further aggravated. Whatever the case, the Dodgers will have to get by without him starting in Game 2.

Ethier was hitting .125 in the playoffs, but his presence adds depth to what was already a strong L.A. lineup. It remains to be seen how long Ethier will be on the shelf, but manager Don Mattingly certainly has to be hopeful that he’ll be back in some capacity, even as a pinch hitter.

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Andre Ethier was held out of the lineup again on Tuesday due to a sore foot, leaving the Los Angeles Dodgers without one of their top outfielders.

The Dodgers had hoped that Ethier would be able to start on Tuesday, as Steve Dilbeck of the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday:

He has jogged and hit during pregame workouts the past two days, and said he is feeling better. Mattingly said if there are no setbacks, he hopes Ethier will be able to play during the three-game series in San Francisco that starts Tuesday.

However, the Dodgers obviously feel that Ethier is not ready to handle the physical demands of MLB play, resulting in his absence in the lineup.

Ethier has had just one at-bat since he injured himself on Sept. 13, with that one plate appearance being a strikeout.

Tuesday marks the 10th consecutive game that Ethier has failed to start in, and he’s running out of time to get back to 100 percent. The Dodgers have just five regular season games left after Tuesday night’s contest against the San Francisco Giants.

Ethier‘s foot has been a serious concern as of late, and according to Ken Gurnick of Dodgers.com, he was seen in a walking boot as recently as Sept. 17.

Andre Ethier still wearing protective walking boot on his sprained left ankle.

— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) September 17, 2013

While he has taken swings without a problem, Ethier still hasn’t been able to run the bases without discomfort, as reported by Anthony Jackson of Dodgerscribe.com.

Ethier says he feels normal swinging, but rounding bases still uncomfortable.

— Anthony Jackson (@dodgerscribe) September 24, 2013

What’s more, the loss of Ethier is exacerbated by the fact that Matt Kemp still isn’t completely healthy either.

Kemp has played in just 70 games this season and recently returned from an ankle injury that caused him to miss 52 games from July 21 to Sept. 16.

Okay, so this doesn’t look so minor (https://t.co/Shvqc5EqId): pic.twitter.com/tQwPxYdfBL

— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) July 21, 2013

Kemp’s recovery also went poorly, as he suffered a setback on Sept. 6. in the form of a hamstring injury.

Matt Kemp felt tightness in one of his hamstrings and has been shut down “indefinitely”

— David Vassegh (@THEREAL_DV) September 6, 2013

Kemp has been a mere shadow of himself in the seven games he’s played in since his return, making the loss of Ethier so much more painful.

While Kemp did go 4-for-4 with three RBI in his second game back, he’s gone 2-for-15 since then without an extra-base hit, run scored or RBI.

The Dodgers have Yasiel Puig and Carl Crawford in the outfield alongside the struggling Kemp, but losing Ethier still hurts. The team has gone 3-6 without Ethier this month, including 1-3 against teams with sub-.500 records.

Ethier was also one of the best players the team had in the month of October, as he hit .355 with three home runs, six RBI and seven runs scored in the 2009 postseason. He has not played in the playoffs since, and it remains unclear how much he’ll play in them this season.

The Dodgers do not have a lot of players with postseason experience on their roster. Guys like Puig, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Ricky Nolasco and Hanley Ramirez have never played in the postseason before, leaving the team very inexperienced.

The team also has several stars who have historically struggled in October, including Carl Crawford (.253 BA), Matt Kemp (.226 BA), Clayton Kershaw (5.87 ERA) and Zack Greinke (6.48 ERA). These guys haven’t been able to step up when it matters most, and Ethier was one of the few Dodgers who found postseason success.

The loss of Ethier is a serious one for the early World Series favorites, and L.A. could see its unbelievable second half comeback be all for naught if the team is ousted early in the postseason.

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I’ll take a wild guess and say that about 98.32 percent of rumored trades between now and July 31 won’t happen. In fact, a large percentage of those probably weren’t even seriously discussed by the teams mentioned.

So while we were all seriously discussing how those players would fit on their new teams and speculating on which prospects were going to be part of the trade package, the general managers involved in the rumored deal were probably working on a deal that was completely under wraps and then surprised the heck out of everybody once it was announced. 

And despite being completely fooled year after year, those discussions among fellow baseball fans are what makes this one of the best times of the year to be a baseball fan.

You can’t predict baseball on or off the field. Expect the unexpected. Just don’t expect these four rumored trades to happen.     

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Carlos Marmol was a big distraction for the Chicago Cubs before being demoted Tuesday.

Despite the success he showed as the Cubs closer in 2010, Marmol started to show signs he couldn’t get the job done in 2011 when he had 10 blown saves.

The last two years have been much of the same, as fans were always on edge when he came into games.

Besides that, he was a distraction to his teammates:

Hoyer says marmol had become a distraction, “kind of a sideshow” for teammates.

— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub) June 25, 2013

Whether it was a distraction of him constantly blowing leads or the lack of confidence teammates had in him, Marmol wasn’t good for the clubhouse.

No matter what happened, Marmol finally became more of a distraction than the Cubs wanted to deal with and he was demoted.

But Marmol hasn’t been the only distraction in Major League Baseball this season.

Here’s a look at five other players who are distractions to their teams.

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The offseason has been abound with rumors that Dodgers right fielder Andre Ethier might be traded.  GM Ned Colletti repeatedly squashed them, but reports surfaced that both the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners were interested.

The Dodgers seem content to head into the season with a starting outfield of (from left field to right) Carl Crawford, Matt Kemp, and Ethier.  And on the surface, they should be.

As recently as 2010, Crawford put up a seven-win season, by fangraphs.com’s WAR metric.  Kemp finished second in the MVP voting in 2011, and Ethier, while never reaching those heights, has been solidly above average for every season of his career.

However, the Dodgers are currently locked into their outfield through 2017, as that is when both Crawford’s and Ethier’s contracts expire.

Crawford is probably not tradeable.  It’s been two years since he was valuable at all, and he’s coming off Tommy John surgery and played in just 31 games last season.  Even if the Dodgers could somehow find a trade partner, he likely wouldn’t fetch very much in return.

Ethier, on the other hand, is a different story.  While none of the rumors really specified what the Dodgers wanted in return, it’s a perfectly reasonable assumption to say that—given his more current track record and cheaper contract—he has more value than Crawford does.

Ethier supporters would likely argue that given his consistent production (an OPS above .800 in six of his seven seasons), the Dodgers would be hard-pressed to find a suitable replacement.  And while in the short-term that may be true, a slightly longer-term approach shows that they would be better off with the extra roster spot.  This past offseason, Nick Swisher and Josh Hamilton were available, but the Dodgers didn’t have a place to put them if they made an offer.

In 2014, Jacoby Ellsbury, Curtis Granderson, Carlos Beltran and Corey Hart will be free agents, and the Dodgers’ deep pockets would enable them to go out and sign one of those veterans.

An alternative route would be to hand the job to Cuban outfielder Yasiel Puig, who Baseball Prospectus’ Jason Parks recently ranked as the 79^th-best prospect in baseball.  While Puig undoubtedly isn’t ready yet, the assumption is that at some point soon he’ll be a productive member of the big league roster.

The idea here isn’t to say that Ethier is a bad player.  He’s certainly not—he’s posted a WAR above 2.0 each year of his career—but he does have limitations.  He’s not a great defender, as seen by baseball-reference.com’s defensive metrics, which have him worth -45 runs over the course of his career, and he has always struggled versus left handed pitching.

Over the course of his career, Ethier has posted a .649 OPS against lefties, as compared to .913 against righties.  This brings to light another problem, which is that Crawford also struggles against lefties, with a .688 OPS.  It’s very difficult to manage a lineup with two everyday players that struggle against left-handed pitchers.

In the end, trading Ethier would give the Dodgers some badly needed roster flexibility.  As it is, they are locked in to long-term contracts at most positions, and Ethier has enough trade value that swapping him would be worth it in the long run.

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With the clock ticking down to the beginning of Spring Training, General Manager Jack Zduriencik and the Seattle Mariners continue to search high and low for ways to improve their roster.

To recap, GM Z has made a slew of minor moves including the acquisition of Robert Andino, re-signing Hisashi Iwakuma and Oliver Perez, and bringing in veteran outfielders Raul Ibanez and Jason Bay.

To date Seattle has made only one “big” move, trading Jason Vargas to the Los Angeles Angels for 1B/DH Kendrys Morales.

With questions still remaining on how the Mariners will improve their roster, GM Z and the rest of ownership have a bevy of options still available to them.

Here’s a look at the top five ways the Mariners can improve before spring training.

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The Seattle Mariners should not trade for Andre Ethier of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Rumors continue to circulate that the two teams are talking, including a recent tweet from Mike Petriello of ESPN.

Yes. RT @prospectinsider: Hearing Mariners have progressed in trade talks for a hitter. Indications it’s Ethier. Multiple players involved.

— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) December 31, 2012

Certainly the Mariners need offensive help and Ethier has proven to be a solid player throughout his career. All things being equal, Ethier would be a nice addition to any lineup.

Nice, but not must-have.

For the Mariners, it isn’t just about adding nice pieces. Instead, Seattle is in a payroll situation where it always has to be very careful about expensive contracts.

Go ahead and take a chance on a one-year deal for Jason Bay.

Don’t commit five years to Andre Ethier.

This is not the NFL where teams can more easily cut a player when they get hurt or stop producing.

Ethier officially qualifies as an expensive contract, at least from the standpoint of the Mariners.

In 2012, Ethier was signed to a five-year, $85 million contract extension that begins in 2013. This was part of the new-regime Dodgers and their free-spending ways in 2012.

For Seattle, Ethier could be a pricey part of the payroll for quite some time.

If the Dodgers want to pick up a sizeable part of the contract, that could change part of the equation. However, it is doubtful that Los Angeles will pay that much of the deal.

There are a numbers of strikes (no pun intended) against an Ethier trade.

Ethier will turn 31 at the beginning of the 2013 season. The Mariners do not necessarily want a 36-year-old outfielder in 2017 that is making $17.5 million.

Andre’s career statistics (via Baseball-Reference.com), are solid, and Seattle could certainly benefit from a player who is a career .290 hitter. Ethier has been a very consistent player at the plate throughout his career, as his career low was .272 in 2009.

But if the Mariners are looking for Ethier to provide more power in the lineup, they may be disappointed.

Ethier did hit 31 home runs one year, but that was in 2009. Since then, his seasonal home run totals have been 23, 11 and 20.

These are good numbers compared to the current Seattle lineup, but Ethier is not exactly slugger material, particularly as he ages.

Then there is Ethier’s health, which has been adequate, but not exactly stellar.

Throughout his career, Ethier has never played a full season of baseball. He played the most games in 2009 (can you say career year?) when he played 160 games and drove in a career-best 106.

Over the last three seasons, Ethier’s games played has looked like this:

2010: 139
2011: 135
2012: 149

You wouldn’t put those numbers in the “injury-prone” category, but these totals should raise some concerns about durability.

Guys who have missed games in the past do not typically get healthier as they get older.

The question the Mariners have to ask is whether they want to pay a guy an average of $17 million a year to play 140 games and hit 20 home runs.

That may be a more conservative projection for a player like Ethier, but it is arguably realistic considering what he has produced in recent years.

If Ethier follows the normal decline experienced by many baseball players, he could be hitting .260 with 12-15 home runs in a couple of seasons.

Is that worth $17 million a year?

Even with the shorter fences at Safeco Field, is Andre going to pound 30 home runs and play 150-160 games for the next five years?

That seems unlikely. History is against such a scenario.

If the Mariners were looking for a complementary player and they had additional payroll flexibility, it might be a good deal to ship a couple of prospects to Los Angeles for Andre Ethier.

However, the future for Ethier is not necessarily bright. He certainly is not worth one of Seattle’s premier pitching projects.

Too many years, too much money and too many questions in the latter years of the contract.

This trade rumor has some intrigue, but Seattle should let this deal pass them by.

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Six months after signing a five-year, $85 million contract extension (h/t Sporting News) to stay in Los Angeles through the 2017 season, the Dodgers are shopping right fielder Andre Ethier, as reported by Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News (via Twitter):

Source: Dodgers shopping Andre Ethier. If they deal him, they could be in the mix for Nick Swisher.

— Mark Feinsand (@FeinsandNYDN) December 18, 2012

CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman says not so fast (via Twitter):

dodgers are not shopping ethier (tho they listen on anyone). to date, source said they have received no offers on AE

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) December 18, 2012

The truth probably lies somewhere in between, but we can be sure of two things in this convoluted mess of conflicting reports: Where there’s smoke there’s usually fire, and Andre Ethier would be a sought-after commodity.

Which teams might be seeking to add the 30-year-old slugger to the mix?

Let’s take a look.

Keep in mind that this is ALL speculation. There have been no rumors from credible sources to indicate that a deal is in the works between the Dodgers and any of these clubs—or that these clubs have interest in Ethier.

Boston Red Sox

Boston has two of its three outfield spots spoken for, with Jacoby Ellsbury in center and Shane Victorino in right.

Jonny Gomes, Ryan Sweeney, Ryan Kalish and Daniel Nava all figure to compete for playing time in left, but Ethier would be a major upgrade over any of the four.

Actually, adding Ethier would allow the Red Sox to slide Victorino to left, giving them an excellent complement of solid veteran outfielders while having plenty of depth should one of them fall to injury.

With the Mike Napoli signing seeming to have hit a snag (h/t Boston Herald), Ethier‘s bat would more than replace the production that Boston expects from Napoli in 2013 and beyond—though he would not be able to fill the gap at first base.

Prospects like Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley Jr. would be off-limits if I were Red Sox GM Ben Cherington, but there is definitely a deal to be made without those two involved.

Cleveland Indians

Should Cleveland’s pursuit of free-agent outfielder Nick Swisher fail to result in a deal between the two, Ethier would not be a bad Plan B.

As I wrote shortly after Ethier signed his extension with the Dodgers, the two players offer virtually the same production. From 2009 through 2011, you would be hard-pressed to differentiate the two:

Player A: 503 G, .267/.368/.486, 81 HR, 256 RBI

Player B: 434 G, .284/.364/.477, 65 HR, 250 RBI

Ethier is Player B.

Ideally, the power-hitting corner outfielder that the Tribe lands would be either a switch-hitter or a right-handed bat to add to its predominantly left-handed lineup, but at this point, beggars can’t be choosers.

Ethier makes a lot of sense for the Tribe, who could look to use one of its starters, either Ubaldo Jimenez or Justin Masterson, to facilitate a deal.

New York Mets

As presently constituted, the New York Mets’ outfield is comprised of Lucas Duda, Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Mike Baxter.

To say that the team could use a consistent, veteran bat with power in one of its corner outfield spots would be a gross understatement.

Ethier would certainly provide far more protection in the Mets’ lineup for David Wright than Ike Davis does, and his ability to drive the ball out of the yard would take some of the pressure to be the big run producer off of Davis’ shoulders.

Perhaps a package involving recently acquired pitching prospect Noah Syndergaard could get talks between the two teams going.

Seattle Mariners

Seattle struck out in the Josh Hamilton sweepstakes and finds itself sitting a week before Christmas with Jason Bay as the only power bat that the team has added to the mix.

Ethier would immediately become Seattle’s best player, adding power and run production to a lineup that badly needs both.

Seattle scored only 619 runs in 2012, 27th in all of baseball and dead last in the American League, 48 runs behind the Cleveland Indians.

The Mariners have a boatload of pitching prospects working their way through its system, so parting with one of them to add an impact bat like Ethier‘s wouldn’t be as painful in Seattle as it would be elsewhere.

Texas Rangers

Texas needs to figure out a way to replace the production it lost when Josh Hamilton took his talents to Anaheim, and while no one player alone can fill those shoes, Ethier would be a great place to start.

While the Rangers already have Nelson Cruz to play right field, Ethier‘s left-handed bat would be a welcome addition to a lineup that is devoid of power from the left side of the plate.

Third base prospect Mike Olt would certainly be attractive to the Dodgers, though he alone would not be enough to facilitate a deal.

Make sure to check B/R’s MLB page (and sign up for our newsletters) to get the latest on the Andre Ethier situation.

Rick Weiner is a Featured Columnist covering all of MLB and a member of B/R’s Breaking News Team.

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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” 

If Charles Dickens were alive and a sportswriter, he would be telling the tale of Dodger right fielder Andre Either, a classic saga of young man whose pure athletic talents led to fame and fortune yet who was beset by a mercurial blend of greatness and woe.

After six years with the Dodgers, Ethier finally got the extended, extensive contract he had deserved, $85 million over five years. Then he went into a slump batting just .218 in June.

If that isn’t Ethier in a nutshell, nothing is.

Sure, his stats, when looked at over the life of his career, seem pretty consistent. He has batted .272 once and .308 once, otherwise hovering around the career mark of .291. He holds the record for doubles among Dodger players, but his power numbers are relatively meager for someone of his stature.

He averages 20 home runs a year, but had only 11 in 2011 and has 16 this year. Except for 2009 when he had 106 RBI, he averages closer to 75 per season.

He has shown absolute brilliance at times. In 2010, he was leading the National League in home runs, RBI and batting average then broke his finger and was put on the DL. Even though he was selected to start on the NL All-Star Team with more than 2.7 million votes, he slumped down the stretch, finishing with a .292 batting average, 23 home runs and 82 RBI in 139 games.

He then began the next season on fire setting a new MLB record for April with a 23-game hitting streak, breaking the old record set by Joe Torre. He eventually hit in 30 straight. Later in the season, a bothersome knee reduced his output and muddied his reputation a bit when he said he was being forced to play while injured.

This year has been up and down as seen by his .218 average against lefties. Yet, in late August he had hits in 10 consecutive at bats, two shy of a major league record. Down and up and down and up.

But, there is something about Andre that the fans love. It could be his sweet swing or his low-key demeanor or even his dependability in right where he won a Gold Glove last year.

So, there he was last night, batting in the ninth inning against the Padres in a game the Dodgers sorely need to win. But, they were down 3-2 and it didn’t look good. Ethier, who at one point in the season led the MLB in RBIs, had a chance for some late game glory. 

As if scripted by Dickens himself, the hero of our tale produced, knocking a game-tying home run that kept the Dodgers alive, only to win the game in extra innings in which Ethier scored the winning run.

Ethier can do wonderful things and he seemed long overdue especially with the “Great Expectations” for the revamped Dodger team. 

Ethier now bats behind Hanley Ramirez, Matt Kemp and Adrian Gonzalez in arguably the best lineup in baseball so one would expect a few dramatic homers here and there. He might even win a few games down the stretch for a Dodger team that is playing catch-up.

Now, that would be a wonderful story.

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As I followed the Dodgers game against the Padres last night, there was something slightly different about things, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

Was I glad that baseball was finally back after a brief hiatus? Possibly, but that seemed unlikely.

And then, everything clicked.

As Mark Ellis, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier stepped to the plate in succession, my feelings were clarified: it wasn’t that I hadn’t seen baseball in a few days, it was that I hadn’t seen these guys play baseball in so long.

It always seems cliche to talk about off-the-field intangibles or thoughts and feelings that can’t be quantified with an average or a number, but the feeling of knowing the Dodgers were healthy, finally, was almost tangible.

The confidence I lacked with Adam Kennedy patrolling the middle of the order (or even playing at all) and Jerry Hairston as our best hitter had become borderline difficult to bear. In fact, when things finally caught up with the “miracle team” and the losses started piling up, I wondered if this day would ever come.

Would the Dodgers hold Ethier out for an extended period of time wanting to play it safe? Would Kemp’s hamstring cooperate with and respond to the treatment they were giving him?

Well, on a beautiful Friday night at Chavez Ravine, Friday the 13th no less, both of those questions were answered in a way that sent chills and goosebumps down the spine of anyone who claims to bleed Dodger Blue.

As Kemp stepped to the plate and promptly smashed a ball into the left-center field gap, fans throughout the stadium held their breath to see how his legs looked powering into second.

No problem.

So as Kemp jogged into second, a universal sigh of relief was taken and the game continued.

While two runs are hardly enough to make fans believe the offense has returned from its six-week hiatus, the positives were there.

For starters, one of the team’s true unsung heroes (and least-appreciated acquisitions of the off-season), Mark Ellis, was right in the middle of things. Now with 29 runs in just 42 games, Ellis raised his on-base percentage to just under .370 with a monumental two-run homer that got the second half of the season off on the right foot.

While many will remember this as the time when Kemp and Ethier returned from injury, Ellis wanted to remind them that he had been gone for a good chunk of time prior to returning before the All-Star break. Don’t think the celebration of the return of the two Dodger stars Friday night didn’t light a fire under him a little bit.

Regardless of what it looked like, and it wasn’t pretty, I couldn’t describe Friday night’s game as anything less than perfect.

The stars returned, the Dodgers won and hope in Dodgertown was restored. The dominant first-place team we remember from a couple months ago is back—and, man, it feels good to have the band back together.

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