The Dodgers Have Two Rotations On IL, And Their GM Has Had Enough
We're just three weeks away from the end of the 2024 Major League Baseball regular season, and for the Los Angeles Dodgers, despite some twists and turns, they're right where they expected to be. In first place in the National League West, and staring down another October where their starting rotation is decimated by injuries.
Really decimated.
Last season, the Dodgers were forced into starting Clayton Kershaw in Game 1 of the NLDS, despite Kershaw having an injured shoulder that required offseason surgery. Rookie Bobby Miller started Game 2, and Lance Lynn, yes, Lance Lynn, started a win-or-go home Game 3. The Dodgers got swept.
Over the winter President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman and General Manager Brandon Gomes set their sights on ensuring that they'd have better options at the end of the 2024 season. It hasn't worked.
Currently, of the Dodgers Opening Day rotation, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Bobby Miller, James Paxton and Gavin Stone, only Miller is not on the injured list or pitching in a different organization. And he has an ERA of nearly 8 after battling an injury himself. Los Angeles also planned on getting injured pitchers back during the season; pitchers like Kershaw, Dustin May and Walker Buehler. Except Kershaw's hurt again, May is out for the year, and Buehler's ERA is 5.67. Promising rookie River Ryan debuted this season, putting up a 1.33 ERA in four starts. He just had Tommy John surgery in August.
Their current injured list is enough to fill two starting rotations. That's not an exaggeration.
- Tyler Glasnow
- Yoshinobu Yamamoto
- Shohei Ohtani
- Dustin May
- Tony Gonsolin
- Clayton Kershaw
- Gavin Stone
- Emmett Sheehan
- River Ryan
- Nick Frasso
And the front office seems to have had enough.
Apr 18, 2023; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw (22) throws in the first inning against the New York Mets at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Dodgers Injuries Piling Up, Leaving Team Searching For Answers
On Friday, the Dodgers placed Stone on the injured list with shoulder inflammation, potentially knocking him out for the rest of the season. Andrew Friedman spoke to the media before the team's eventual loss to the Cleveland Guardians, and admitted the team is ready to reevaluate its strategy.
"It’s been a really challenging year on that front and something that we’re going to need to spend a lot of time on this winter to really dig in on," Friedman said. "From when we onboard a pitcher, when we draft or trade for him, through the development path, at the major-league level, obviously, it’s a problem in the industry, and the injuries that are happening to us, we feel.
"Injuries that are happening to other teams, we don’t feel as much. It doesn’t hit home quite the same way. And so we’re going to do everything we can to put ourselves in the best position going forward."
When asked what he thinks is the cause of the rash of injuries throughout the league, and especially with the Dodgers, Friedman said it could go back as far as youth baseball.
"I think a lot of this starts at the youth level, and it’s a little bit circular from amateur players thinking what major-league teams want and trying to seek that at a point either with not the right instruction or too young with growth plates still open," Friedman said. "There are a lot of factors, but then we can’t control that, or at least I cannot, the Dodgers cannot. And it’s really about understanding when we’re onboarding a guy. And the one thing I know for sure is there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, and it’s how to really be able to individualize how we bring pitchers along, and it’s getting to know how they recover and things that we’ve been trying to track and know.
"I can’t imagine there’s a team that has their guys go on extra rest more than us. Looking at bullpen usage, we’re near the more conservative, near the top in terms of being conservative. That’s not helping in terms of staving off injuries.
All the Dodgers planning and rest and extra days hasn't mattered. And Friedman's had enough of watching the same strategies fail.
"And so all of this, we need to re-evaluate and be thoughtful about and acknowledge and appreciate what we don’t know. There’s some we know, and there’s a lot we don’t know, and just do everything we can to more thoughtfully create this individualized program. And we started some, it’s hard when we’re going through a regular season and the volume of games, but we’ll put together a group and be really thoughtful about it this offseason and rethink some of how we bring our pitchers along, and the bet is that it will be anywhere from somewhat productive to incredibly productive."
What Can The Dodgers Do To Prevent Pitcher Injuries?
Probably not too much. Pitching is difficult, it's unnatural, and in the modern era, it's harder on the arm than it's ever been. High velocity, high spin rates, more breaking balls, all of it contributes to the rash of injuries. As Friedman mentioned, pitchers are now trained from a young age to chase metrics that major league teams value. For obvious reasons.
Still, the Dodgers seem to have more than their share of injuries each year. As to what can be done about that, there may be a bit of an answer: stop targeting high upside, injury-prone starters.
Time and time again, we've seen in baseball that the best rotation is a healthy one. A low upside rotation that's healthy is often going to outperform a rotation full of replacements for injured stars. The Dodgers are known for accumulating quality depth, but even they have their limits.
This year, it might cost them a chance to win the World Series in a year where Shohei Ohtani continues to make history. Something has to change.