Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia dealing with personal matter

TORONTO – Alex Vesia, one of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ most reliable relievers, is dealing with a personal matter that has cast doubt on his availability for the World Series.

As part of a statement released Thursday, the Dodgers wrote that Vesia “is absent from the team while he and his wife Kayla handle a deeply personal family matter.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts did not provide additional details when speaking to reporters moments later, although he added that the team “is in the process of trying to fill their roster spot” before a game against the Toronto Blue Jays.

World Series rosters must be submitted by 10 a.m. ET Friday, the day of the first game at Rogers Centre. But Major League Baseball also has a family medical emergency list that requires a minimum of three days and a maximum of seven days off the list. If the Dodgers use that designation with Vesia, he could technically return as early as Game 3 at Dodger Stadium.

Vesia has been one of the few bright spots in a beleaguered bullpen this season, posting a 3.02 ERA and 0.99 WHIP with 80 strikeouts and 22 walks in 59⅔ innings. And throughout the postseason, Vesia, a 29-year-old left-hander in his sixth season, has been Roberts’ most reliable late-game option outside of right-hander Blake Treinen and starter-turned-closer Roki Sasaki.

Vesia’s absence could create an opening for Tanner Scott, the veteran left-hander who struggled during the first season of a four-year, $72 million contract. Scott was removed from the roster in the middle of the National League Division Series after having to undergo an abscess incision on his lower body, a decision that ruled him out of the ensuing NL Championship Series. But Scott has since started throwing bullpens again and said earlier this week that he feels “a lot better now.”

Another southpaw, Anthony Banda, has also re-emerged as a reliable late-game option. But most of the Blue Jays’ best hitters — Vladimir Guerrero Jr., George Springer, Ernie Clement and Alejandro Kirk in particular — swing right-handed, which makes Sasaki, Treinen and Emmet Sheehan all the more important in this series.

Roberts said Thursday that the Dodgers would carry Clayton Kershaw on their World Series roster and added that they would “most likely” start Tyler Glasnow in Game 3 and Shohei Ohtani in Game 4 (after Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Games 1 and 2, respectively). But Roberts remains vague about Vesia’s situation.

“Honestly,” he said, “I think we’re just going day by day with really no expectations.”