David Dahl — finally — gets a chance to be a baseball player again.
The Rockies’ talented outfielder, who did not play in a big-league game last season, is scheduled to begin swinging a bat again as he gears up for spring training.
“I start swinging Thursday when I get back to Scottsdale,” said Dahl, who will resume working out at the Rockies’ Talking Stick facility in Arizona.
Dahl, 24, has not played since a July 31 game with Triple-A Albuquerque, and has not swung a bat since. He suffered a stress reaction injury to a rib during spring training and played in just two Cactus League games before he was shut down. The pain and tenderness in his upper back, near where the rib connects with the spine, flared up whenever he started swinging a bat.
Dahl has been working out extensively, building up leg strength, but he has not swung a bat because Rockies’ trainers wanted to make sure he was completely healed. His healthy return would be a huge bonus for the Rockies, who need another power bat in their lineup.
Dahl played in only 19 minor minor-league games in 2017 (17 with Triple-A Albuquerque and two with high-A Lancaster), batting .260 with three home runs in 82 plate appearances. He entered spring training expecting to compete with Gerardo Parra for the starting job in left field.
Dahl made his big-league debut on July 25 of 2016 season and recorded a hit in each of his first 17 games. He ended up hitting .315 with seven homers and 24 RBIs in 63 games. But 2017 was a lost season.
“I was hoping I could help the Rockies this year, because I wanted to contribute to the good things going on up there,” Dahl said in August. “It’s been a very frustrating season, to be sure, but I have to accept it as part of the game. It just makes me want to come back stronger next spring.
“I tried to play through (the injury), because I really wanted to play. So I would be on rehab for a couple of weeks and feel better. But then I would start swinging and I thought it was just soreness. But then it started affecting my playing and we just decided to shut it down for the whole season. The thing I really need is rest, to let it heal completely, because every time I would start swinging, I would start feeling it again.”
