Mookie Betts return leaves Dodgers facing tough decision with roster

To Dave Roberts, the roster crunch facing the Dodgers might be a good problem to have.But the situation still presents a problem.The good news for the club: Mookie Betts is set to be activated from the injured list Monday, making his awaited return from an oblique strain that has sidelined him for more than a month.What that means, however, is that someone will have to be squeezed off the active roster in a corresponding move.And on the eve of that decision Sunday, no easy answer had yet emerged.“It’s a potential tough conversation,” Roberts acknowledged, saying the club had yet to finalize its choice.“I could make a case for all the guys we’re considering.”The three candidates for the chopping block have been obvious for a while: infielders Alex Freeland, Hyeseong Kim and Santiago Espinal.Each of them, though, still offers value to the club.A big caveat to start with: Espinal has easily been the worst performer of the three, batting .188 in extremely limited playing time (his 32 at-bats are the fewest among members of the Opening Day roster).

But, the former All-Star utilityman is also the only one of the three without any minor-league options, meaning that he would have to be designated for assignment and exposed to waivers if he were demoted from the active roster.Kim and Freeland, on the other hand, could simply be optioned to Triple-A, which would allow the Dodgers to preserve more organizational depth.Another factor: When Betts returns, playing time will be limited for whoever stays with the club.The Dodgers will still have a platoon opening at second base — at least until Tommy Edman makes his own IL return after missing the start of the year recovering from ankle surgery (he is still at least several weeks away and was transferred to the 60-day IL this week).But where Kim and Freeland have started regularly over the last month, getting valuable at-bats as young players continuing to develop offensively, one or both of them could see their at-b...