Stone (shoulder inflammation) to IL; status for rest of season in question
LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers have been dealing with massive blows to their starting rotation all season long. Gavin Stone is now the latest starter to land on the injured list.
Stone was placed on the 15-day IL before Friday’s game against the Guardians with right shoulder inflammation. The right-hander reported the discomfort after his last start against the D-backs. After getting a couple of extra days of rest, tests revealed the inflammation.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Stone will be shut down from throwing for at least 10 days. Given where the Dodgers are on the schedule, Stone’s availability for the remainder of the season is in question.
“I’m not sure,” said president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. “I’m optimistic he is going to do everything he possibly can. There’s just so much unknown around it that we’re going to do all we can to dominate each day, and hopefully, when he starts throwing, he can ramp up from there. It’s just hard to speculate right now.”
Stone was the Dodgers’ only starter to make every start through the rotation this season, leading the club with 140 1/3 innings pitched (a career high) and 11 wins. With Stone on the injured list, the Dodgers are going to lean on rookies Landon Knack and Justin Wrobleski to fill in the void. Knack started the series opener against Cleveland on Friday at Dodger Stadium.
“For Gavin, I hope that we can get him back, because this was a breakthrough year for him,” Roberts said. “He picked us up a lot. Arguably on the tipping the scale of making the All-Star team. To not be able to see this through, that would be really disheartening.”
The Dodgers came into Friday’s game tied with the Phillies for the best record in the Majors, but they’re running into a lot of question marks regarding their starting rotation as the season winds down.
Along with Stone, the Dodgers have Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Clayton Kershaw currently on the IL. All three were expected to have big roles in the postseason. Now, there’s a lot of uncertainty.
Glasnow will throw an important bullpen session on Saturday and Yamamoto will be activated on Tuesday after just two rehab starts. Even upon his return, Yamamoto will be limited to two or three innings. Kershaw’s status for the rest of the season is also in question.
“We’re going to have enough pitching,” Roberts said. “The names might be a little different. I don’t think anyone knows who will and who won’t be a part of it.”
The next three weeks will be key for the Dodgers. They will continue to evaluate their starters and the best way to utilize their pitching staff moving forward. The starting rotation was a major downfall for the Dodgers last October, and they’re looking to avoid that hampering them for a second consecutive year. But they took another big hit in losing Stone.
“Right now, we’ve got to figure out how to line up our starters,” Friedman said. “And as guys are coming back, making sure that they get enough workload under their belt to hit October in stride, where we have a chance to look back and say, ‘This was great, this time off for hopefully a long, full month of October ended up being a good thing.’ And so that’s where our mindset is.”