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The Tulsa Drillers, the Dodgers’ Double-A affiliate, have suspended their bat dog program after outfielder Kendall George suffered an injury related to the program, per a report carried by MSN. The bat dog program — a fan-favorite tradition at ONEOK Field where a trained dog retrieves bats from home plate — has been put on hold while the organization evaluates the situation.

George is one of the more intriguing young outfielders in our system. The Dodgers selected him in the second round of the 2023 draft out of Stratford High School in Houston, Texas. He’s a toolsy, left-handed-hitting outfielder with speed and defensive range who climbed through the lower levels of our farm system and earned his promotion to Double-A Tulsa. He’s still just 21 years old and projects as a potential everyday outfielder at the major league level if his bat continues to develop. Any injury to a prospect on his trajectory is something the organization takes seriously, regardless of how it happens.

The specifics of how George was injured during the bat dog proceedings have not been fully detailed, but the Drillers clearly felt the incident was serious enough to warrant an immediate suspension of the program. Bat dog programs exist at a handful of minor league parks across the country and are generally considered harmless fun — a staple of the minor league experience. For one to actually result in a player getting hurt is genuinely unusual and (frankly) a scenario nobody plans for.

I want to be careful here not to blow this out of proportion before we know the extent of the injury. But the fact that the Drillers acted this quickly — suspending the program outright rather than just modifying it — suggests the injury was not trivial. We don’t have specifics on whether George will miss time, whether it’s a lower-body or upper-body issue, or whether this affects his development timeline in any meaningful way.

From a big-picture Dodgers standpoint, George is the kind of prospect you want accumulating at-bats at Double-A without interruption. Our outfield picture at the major league level is stacked right now, but the pipeline matters, and George is part of the long-term plan. We’ll keep an eye on any updates regarding his status. For now, the bat dogs are benched — and that’s probably the right call.

Source(s): Tulsa Drillers (MSN) | First reported: June 9, 2026 12:32 AM UTC

God Bless and Go Dodgers