Just barely over a month after being DFA’d when the Dodgers acquired Shane Victorino, 38-year-old Bobby Abreu is back. He spent most of the last month on the Triple-A disabled list thanks to a sprained ankle, but did manage to get into his first five minor-league games since 1997.

Abreu was another one of those guys who earned a lot of capital with a nice first impression that he was never able to keep up, hitting .318/.430/.424 in May but only .200/.307/.323 in June and .229/.327/.250 in July. On the other hand, the bar for this awful bench group is pretty low, so how good does Abreu really need to be to fit in with Nick Punto, Adam Kennedy, Juan Uribe, Juan Rivera, & Matt Treanor? As a lefty pinch hitter in the world of expanded rosters, one who never ever sees the field, he’s fine to have.

Of course, while adding Abreu to the active roster is no big deal, the 40-man is tight, and the corresponding move there was to put minor leaguer Chris Withrow on the 60-day DL. Though he’s been fighting injuries all season, I hadn’t heard what the most recent one was, though I did find this from August 18:

On a delivery to Paul Gran, Withrow’s pitch went all the way to the backstop with Lasater hustling home on the pass ball to even the score 2-2.  Withrow suffered an injury on the pitch and was forced to leave the game.

Since the minor league season is all but over, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s as serious as it sounds, just that he wasn’t going to be able to pitch in the few days left in the year.

For today’s series finale against Arizona, the lineup is the same as it is every day, with the exception that Matt Treanor steps in for A.J. Ellis. At some point soon, I’d rather see Tim Federowicz get a game or two in since Treanor is pretty atrocious, but the veteran has been Chris Capuano‘s “personal catcher” – no matter what Don Mattingly says – so I suppose it doesn’t make sense right now to screw with the starter’s routine. Brandon League, who picked up his first Dodger save last night and has been outstanding lately (11 K over last 7 games, all scoreless innings) has pitched three days in a row and is likely unavailable today, so expect Ronald Belisario if it’s a save situation.

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Over at the LA Times, Bill Shaikin has an interesting profile of Yasiel Puig today. It’s an eye-opener, in ways both positive and less-so. On the other hand, in light of other events of the day, I’m increasingly tempted to never link to anything the Times publishes ever again.