The Dodgers won’t know for certain the extent of Ivan De Jesus’ oblique injury until an MRI is taken Monday, but manager Don Mattingly conceded any playing time missed greatly hampers an already-longshot bid for an Opening Day roster spot.

“It’s hard to compete when you can’t be out there,” said Mattingly. “With this type of injury, there’s not a lot you can do. If you lose eight to 10 days, how many days does it take just to get your timing back? Not a good time to get hurt. You could see it on his face last night. These guys know it hurts your chance.”

Hopefully it’s just a mild strain, but they don’t sound that optimistic.

In better news, Matt Guerrier sounds like he might be ready to go by the start of the season.

Mattingly had better news on reliever Matt Guerrier, who has been out a week with lower back pain. He said the right-hander has continued to improve and plans to throw off a mound Monday. If that goes well, he could face hitters in a simulated game Wednesday and might be game-ready by next weekend.

I’m starting to wonder if it might be better just to put him on the disabled list to start the season and take it slow.

The bullpen is very deep this year, so he would just be a middle reliever with this group anyway. Plus, the team would get extra time to evaluate a camp arm in actual games.

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Eight more players were cut from the Dodgers today, seven of whom were reassigned and one who was released.

The Dodgers made their second round of player cuts on Sunday, moving four pitchers and four position players out of the Major League clubhouse.

Left-handed pitcher Alberto Castillo was released. Reassigned to Minor League camp were these non-roster invitees: pitchers Ryan Tucker, Matt Chico and Will Savage; catchers Gorman Erickson and Matt Wallach; and infielders Lance Zawadzki and Jeff Baisley.

I actually wanted to see more of Gorman Erickson, but as with the last time, no real surprises.