Alex Guerrero could miss five weeks after having part of his ear bitten off by Miguel Olivo - MLB

Danny Knobler of ESPN Los Angeles reports that Dodgers prospect Alex Guerrero could miss five weeks following yesterday’s dugout altercation in which Triple-A teammate Miguel Olivo bit off part of his ear.

According to Knobler for now at least Guerrero has chosen not to file formal charges against Olivo, but he’s currently hospitalized and needs plastic surgery. And how exactly did an argument that led to someone’s ear being bitten off by a teammate begin?

Well, agent Scott Boras told the Los Angeles Times that “Olivo became steamed after his team allowed a stolen base in the seventh inning” and “blamed Guerrero for failing to tag the baserunner in time.”

So, you know, a perfectly reasonable justification for biting off someone’s ear.

Olivo apparently punched Guerrero in the dugout and then, according to the newspaper, “when players pulled off Olivo, he had a piece of Guerrero’s ear in his mouth.” Yeesh.

Guerrero signed a $28 million deal with the Dodgers this offseason after defecting from Cuba and is hitting .376 with 10 homers and a 1.152 OPS in 33 games at Triple-A, so if not for having an ear-biting maniac as a teammate he likely would have been in line for a call-up soon.

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CINCINNATI — The Los Angeles Dodgers placed pitcher Noah Syndergaard on the 15-day injured list Thursday with a blister on the index finger of his right throwing hand.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the timetable for Syndergaard’s return is unknown despite the 15-day designation.

“The physical, the mental, the emotional part, as he’s talked about, has taken a toll on him,” Roberts said. “So, the ability to get him away from this. He left today to go back to Los Angeles to kind of get back to normalcy.”

Syndergaard allowed six runs and seven hits in three innings against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night, raising his ERA to 7.16.

Syndergaard (1-4) has surrendered at least five runs in three straight starts.

Syndergaard has been trying to return to the player he was before Tommy John surgery sidelined him for the better part of the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

Roberts said Syndergaard will need at least “a few weeks” to both heal and get away from baseball and “reset.”

“I think searching and not being comfortable with where he was at in the moment is certainly evident in performance,” Roberts said. “So hopefully this time away will provide more clarity on who he is right now as a pitcher.

“Trying to perform when you’re searching at this level is extremely difficult. I applaud him from not running from it, but it’s still very difficult. Hopefully it can be a tale of two stories, two halves when he does come back.”