Dodgers’ Tanner Scott removed from roster after undergoing medical procedure

The Dodgers swapped out lefty reliever Tanner Scott for Justin Wrobleski on their division series roster Thursday, just before the team took the field for Game 4 of the NLDS — and less than 24 hours after he underwent a procedure. 

Manager Dave Roberts described the treatment as a lower-body abscess. 

“As I understand it, it was an abscess excision, some type of lower-body, minor procedure. So I don’t know a whole lot about it, to be quite honest with you,” Roberts told reporters before Thursday’s game. “But I do know that he’s recovering well. And it took place last night. That’s kind of where we’re at.”

Roberts previously said that Scott was not at the ballpark Wednesday night — after the Dodgers’ 8-2 loss to the Phillies — and that it was a personal matter that would be announced at a later time. 

Scott, 31, is still eligible for a playoff return, but the earliest he would be able to is the World Series due to the MLB’s rules regarding postseason roster removals. 

Scott signed a four-year, $72 million deal with the Dodgers this past offseason, but he struggled during the season with a 4.74 ERA and had not appeared in any of Los Angeles’ playoff games this year. 

There had been some questions as to why the Dodgers waited to make a move with their roster until now. Waiting to make the move led to Los Angeles using Clayton Kershaw for an extra inning of work in Game 3, turning a 3-1 deficit into a rout. 

“I don’t think we knew exactly the extent of it,” Roberts said of Scott. “And so to kind of make that preemptive decision, I think we were probably a little bit more in flux.”

Wrobleski, a 25-year-old southpaw, appeared 24 times this season for the Dodgers, recording a 4.32 ERA through 66⅔ innings pitched.