Dahl Ready for Next Step in Journey Back to Big Leagues

Outfielder David Dahl remains a potential impact player for the Rockies.

It's a matter of getting him healthy.

Dahl is ready for the next step in his rehab from his latest injury, a broken bone in his left foot suffered when he fouled a ball off the foot in a July 31 game. Dahl will join the Rockies Triple-A Albuquerque affiliate on Sunday, and work out with the team during the All-Star Break with the hope he will be able to begin a minor-league rehabilitation option on Thursday or Friday.

The plan is for him him to play five innings in that first game, take a day off, and if everything is on course, he will play seven innings the next day, and then have another day off. The feeling is he will need to be healthy enough to play three consecutive days before being considered for a return to the big-league roster. 

For Dahl, a former first-round draft pick, his trip to the big leagues has been detoured by an assortment of significant injuries.

After an in-season call up in 2016 when he hit .279 eight eight home runs and 34 RBI and was considered ready to step into the Rockies lineup, he spent the bulk of the 2017 on the disabled list after suffering a stress reaction to the rib during spring training. Dahl was sent to Albuquerque on a rehab assignment July 17, but after 17 games was shut down and was not even allowed to pick up a bat again until mid-January.

In 2015 he was involved in an outfield collision at Double-A New Britain on May 28, and suffered a ruptured spleen, limiting him to 79 games between Short-Season A Boise and New Britain that season. 

And in 2013, the year after the Rockies selected him with the 10th pick overall in the draft, he suffered a pulled hamstring after 10 games and did not play again that season.