LOS ANGELES — Mookie Betts stubbed a toe in his left foot during an off-the-field incident and missed the opener of the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ highly anticipated series against the New York Yankees on Friday.

Betts is not expected to go on the injured list, according to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, but he will not start against the Yankees on Saturday or Sunday. Roberts said the hope is that Betts will return to the lineup shortly thereafter.

“For me, right now, it’s just day-to-day,” Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 8-5, come-from-behind win.

The incident, which affected the tip of Betts’ second toe, was believed to have occurred late Wednesday night, after the Dodgers returned from a six-game road trip, when Betts banged his toe against a piece of furniture at his house. Betts called Roberts to inform him about his toe on Friday morning, then underwent X-rays at Dodger Stadium later that afternoon.

Those X-rays revealed a fracture, a source told ESPN, confirming what Betts told the Los Angeles Times after Friday’s game. The Dodgers’ training staff will spend the weekend attempting to get the swelling down on his toe. At this point, the Dodgers don’t believe he can make the injury any worse by playing on it.

Said Roberts: “It’s going to be one of those situations per his [pain] tolerance.”

Betts’ injury isn’t the Dodgers’ most serious at the moment. Late-inning reliever Evan Phillips, who was rehabbing a forearm injury, didn’t feel right playing catch earlier this week and will undergo Tommy John surgery next week, knocking him out for all of 2025 and most of 2026.

Phillips, 30, was released by the Baltimore Orioles in August 2021 and designated for assignment by the Tampa Bay Rays less than two weeks later. The Dodgers picked him up and turned him into a valuable late-game option. From 2022 to 2024, Phillips posted a 2.21 ERA and 0.92 WHIP, saved 44 games and struck out 206 batters in 179 regular-season innings.

But Phillips dealt with arm issues during last year’s postseason run and was left off the team’s World Series roster. He then went on the IL because of a rotator cuff strain in the middle of March, returned a month later, notched seven scoreless appearances, then went back on the IL on May 7 because of what the team called forearm discomfort. Platelet-rich-plasma injections did not take. Phillips never got better.

“As we started getting into it, it wasn’t really responding,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said. “We felt like this could be a possibility, so as he got deeper into the process and it wasn’t really getting better, the decision to do it was pretty much evident with our information.” The loss of Phillips is coupled with the Dodgers having four other high-leverage relievers on the IL — Brusdar Graterol, Blake Treinen, Kirby Yates and Michael Kopech, all of whom are right-handed.

The Dodgers tried to backfill some of that depth by trading for former All-Star closer Alexis Diaz on Thursday. But Diaz, who struggled so badly this season that the Cincinnati Reds optioned him to Triple-A, will initially work out of the Dodgers’ spring training complex in Glendale, Arizona.

The Dodgers also have three starting pitchers — Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki — recovering from shoulder injuries, with Shohei Ohtani not expected to join the rotation until sometime after the All-Star break.

The lineup, at least, had been healthy. Until now.

Betts, 32, got off to a slow start but was still slashing .254/.338/.405 with eight home runs and five stolen bases while slotting between the hot-hitting Ohtani and Freddie Freeman in the No. 2 spot. More notably, Betts had proved to be a capable major league shortstop after working during the offseason at the position.

The hope is that the toe injury doesn’t set him back much longer than the rest of this weekend.

In the meantime, Miguel Rojas will continue to get starts at shortstop.

“It’s a good part about having depth,” Gomes said. “Keep the train moving.”

CLEVELAND — Mike Trout originally expected to return to the Los Angeles Angels‘ lineup Monday in Boston.

But the timeline was moved up one series and three days.

Trout was activated off the injured list and went 1-for-5 as the designated hitter in Friday night’s 4-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians. The Angels slugger missed 26 games because of soreness in his left knee that was eventually diagnosed as a bone bruise. The three-time American League MVP had two operations last year on the knee after tearing his meniscus.

“Felt good. Struck out on two at-bats, but other than that, felt all right,” said Trout, who batted fifth for the first time in 1,532 starts.

Trout lined a base hit to left-center in the fourth inning. He thought he had a hit in his first at-bat in the second inning, but Cleveland third baseman José Ramírez made a nice grab on a low line drive.

“I thought he had some good at-bats, considering that he hadn’t seen live pitching in a while,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “He hit the ball hard three times today. They made some good pitches when he struck out. But welcome back, Mike.”

Trout’s return also helped the Angels snap a five-game losing streak and improve to 28-30.

It was the first time since Sept. 26, 2011, Trout’s rookie season, that he started a game hitting lower than third.

Washington is happy to have Trout back, especially because he noted Trout wasn’t aggressive in rushing in his return. Washington also knows that Trout isn’t ready to return to his normal spot batting second or third.

“He hasn’t seen anything. So when you look at what we have, that’s where he sits,” Washington said before the game. “It doesn’t make sense for him to protect [Logan] O’Hoppe. So, I’ll put Mike behind him to protect O’Hoppe. He’s not ready to be at the top of the lineup, especially with those guys up there. As we go along the next couple of days, he’s not going to remain fifth.”

The 33-year-old Trout is hitting .180 with 9 home runs, 18 RBIs and a .712 OPS in 30 games. He will be the designated hitter for the weekend series against the Guardians before possibly returning to right field when the Halos head to Boston on Monday for a three-game series.

Even though Trout has shied away from wanting to be the designated hitter, he has done well in that spot. In eight games this season, he is 9-for-33 (.273) with 6 home runs and 9 RBIs.

Trout said whether he plays more games than originally planned at DH the remainder of the season is something that remains to be seen.

“Bone bruises are tricky. I know I am going to be sore, but I can deal with it,” he said. “I definitely have to be cautious, especially the first couple games.”

Trout has missed 404 of the Angels’ 665 games — almost 60% — since May 17, 2021, when he tore his calf muscle against Cleveland and was sidelined for the rest of that season. This is the fifth straight year he has had a stint of at least 25 games on the IL.

He missed five weeks of the 2022 season because of a back injury, and all but one game after July 3, 2023, after he broke a bone in his hand on a foul ball. Trout played in 29 games last season before the meniscus injury.

“There’s so many games that any sense of newness or something to make you excited is something that you’d latch on to. So, today is definitely a moment like that,” O’Hoppe said about Trout’s return. “He’s the heart of this organization. So, we’re happy to have our heart beating again for sure.”

Ministers are to kick off the hunt for a new chair of the communications regulator as Lord Grade of Yarmouth prepares to bow out after a single term at the helm.

Sky News has learnt that the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) – which now leads oversight of Ofcom in Whitehall – is drawing up proposals to launch a recruitment process in the coming months.

Lord Grade, the veteran broadcast executive who held senior posts at the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, has served as Ofcom chair since May 2022.

His four-year term is not due to end for another 11 months, and there was no suggestion this weekend that he would leave the role ahead of that point.

Insiders said, however, that there was little prospect of him seeking to be reappointed for a second term in the job.

The now non-affiliated peer’s appointment to the post in 2022 came after a controversial recruitment process and was signed off by Nadine Dorries, the then Tory culture secretary.

Responsibility for Ofcom board appointments has switched since then from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Peter Kyle, the science secretary, authorised the recruitment of Tamara Ingram, an advertising industry stalwart, as Ofcom’s deputy chair, last November.

The search for a new Ofcom chair will come after a significant extension of its remit to encompass areas such as online harms.

Both DCMS, which has responsibility for the media industry, and the Department for Business and Trade also have substantial engagement with Ofcom.

As well as a role in appointing directors to the board of state-owned Channel 4, which is hunting both a chair and chief executive, Ofcom regulates companies such as Royal Mail, as well as the BBC.

This week, the watchdog said it was pursuing action against the formerly publicly owned postal services company over its failure to hit statutory delivery targets.

Ofcom also regulates the UK telecoms industry, making it one of the largest economic regulators in Britain.

Mr Kyle said this week that Ofcom should also prepare to be given regulatory oversight of the fast-growing data centre industry.

One of the tasks of Lord Grade’s successor is likely to be long-term executive leadership succession planning.

Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom’s chief executive, has held the role since 2020, although there is no indication that she intends to step down in the short term.

It was unclear this weekend whether any of Ofcom’s existing board members might seek to take over from Lord Grade.

Its slate of non-executive directors includes recently appointed Lord Allan of Hallam, a former MP, and Ben Verwaayen, the former BT Group chief executive.

Mr Verwaayen is due to step down from the Ofcom board at the end of the year.

The hunt for Ofcom’s next chair will come amid a push led by Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves to shake up Britain’s economic regulators as they seek ways to remove red tape from the private sector.

DSIT has been contacted for comment, while Ofcom declined to comment.