For five innings Monday, Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager stood on the infield dirt beneath the sun during a minor league game. He shifted his positioning between batters, swept his feet across the ground and mostly waited for something to do.
Only twice, in the second inning against the Chicago White Sox, a baseball actually went his way.
Both times, Seager performed one of baseball's most basic gestures, an activity given added importance because of the uncertainty about his right elbow and because he had yet to do it in a game this spring: He picked up the baseball and threw it to first base.