Dodgers right-hander Emmet Sheehan hasn’t pitched this season while rehabbing from a forearm injury. He’d recently resumed throwing to live hitters, but manager Dave Roberts told reporters last night that the 24-year-old righty has been shut back down because his arm “hasn’t been responding” the way Dodgers medical personnel hoped (link via Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic). Sheehan said he had another round of testing on his arm that didn’t reveal any structural damage, but Roberts still called his injury a “longer-term situation.” The Dodgers had already transferred him to the 60-day injured list at the end of March.
Sheehan entered the 2023 season as one of the Dodgers’ top pitching prospects and pushed his way into top-100 consideration with a strong minor league showing early last year. By mid-June, he was up in the big leagues for his debut. While the right-hander’s 4.92 ERA in a subsequent sample of 60 1/3 innings didn’t exactly cement him as a long-term fixture just yet, he entered camp as perhaps the favorite to land a rotation spot behind Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Bobby Miller and James Paxton. That spot instead went to fellow righty Gavin Stone, who started his 2024 campaign with two shaky starts before an excellent third outing that saw him carry a perfect game into the sixth inning before running into trouble.
The setback for Sheehan creates further uncertainty in a Dodgers’ rotation that also has Miller, Walker Buehler, Tony Gonsolin, Clayton Kershaw and Dustin May on the injured list. Sheehan’s status on the 60-day IL already meant he was out until at least mid-May, but there’s no way to gauge how long he might be expected to miss right now.
The Dodgers still rank tenth in the majors in rotation ERA, thanks in no small part to a dominant start to the season from Glasnow. Some alarm bells sounded when Yamamoto was torched for five runs in one inning during his MLB debut, but he’s responded by rattling off 15 innings with just three runs allowed while posting a terrific 19-to-3 K/BB ratio. Paxton has quality run-prevention numbers, but his success isn’t sustainable if he keeps walking more hitters than he’s striking out. He’s issued 14 free passes in 16 innings, yielding a walk to a glaring 20.6% of his opponents on the season. He’s fanned just ten (14.7%).
In Glasnow and Paxton, the Dodgers are banking on a pair of oft-injured veterans to help lead the staff while awaiting the returns of Buehler, Kershaw and May. Buehler is expected to make another rehab start this Thursday, per Mike DiGiovanna and Jack Harris of the L.A. Times. His most recent rehab outing was cut short when a comebacker struck his pitching hand, but Buehler escaped that injury scare unscathed. Roberts indicated that Buehler is targeting 80 to 85 pitches in that scheduled Thursday outing. He’ll be reevaluated after that point. If the team feels he’s ready, that’d point to a return next week. If he needs one more rehab start following Thursday’s outing, he could still return in the final days of April.
Sheehan, Ryan and Frasso all have long term injuries. Bobby has a short term injury so they claim. Dodgers are very fortunate they landed Yamamoto and Glasnow because the kids just can’t stay healthy
All pitchers can’t stay healthy. Glasnow’s own issues have been pretty glaring himself but that’s standard for the industry now.
I honestly think MLB likes it this way. They basically use these arms up and don’t care about these guys long term quality of life. That’s why we hear stories about ex-players not being able to lift their kids or live without pain medication. MLB could expand rosters and use each pitcher less but they won’t do that because they’re ran by lawyers only focused on fighting the union.
“MLB likes it this way” how dumb
Owners like paying tens of millions of dollars for players to rehab and not pitch ?
^^ The point.
They also have Kyle Hurt, Ricky Vanasco and Landon Knack in OKC that are MLB ready to fall back on if they need to throw more kids into the frying pan.
I don’t see any of those three being successful starters at MLB level in 2024 but who knows. Perhaps next year and beyond. Hurt could be a good bullpen option. Clock is ticking on Sheehan. He needs to get back at some point in 2024, with enough time to ramp up and shake off the rust. Facing an uphill climb with Miller already having issues and Glasnow/Paxton with checkered injury history. Don’t know which version of Kershaw you’re getting, and same for Buehler although that seems like a much safer bet than Kershaw.
all three called up today
Scary. Outside of Hurt coming out of the pen not sure how much you can trust these guys.
Someone has to take the innings until Walker is back. That will be Knack.
Glasnow won’t stay healthy either, and neither will Paxton …
Hopefully Very Barry will be the one to not stay healthy along with the other trolls.
The price you pay for velocity focus. Where are the days where pitchers could make all their starts and pitch over 250 innings? I wonder if teams can go non-conventional and drop back to focusing on movement/location/longevity at the expense of velocity/higher K rates. Sure, shorter-term you may get slightly worse results but at least you’ll have a healthier pitching staff.
The focus on spin rate and movement is also an injury-producer as it requires changes in grip, release point, and arm angles. So blaming the uptick in injuries entirely on velocity is not covering the causes. Also in the good old days, pitchers played through a lot of injuries that now get them on stints on the IL, and procedures. A great example of this is Sandy Koufax. He was allowed to pitch until his arm turned black and blue. Had he been treated then the way pitchers are today, no telling how much longer his career might have lasted.
Glasnow addressed this in his JM Baseball YouTube (Jomboy) interview this week. He said he lacks the command to pitch slower with precision like Maddux. He said power and spin can get more people to college and the majors with only the risk of TJ. He said TJ is inconvenient and you can’t help your team for a little over a year. He deemed that risk worth it and says he feels healthy right now and expects to surpass 120 ip and says he could’ve last year if allowed.
Hopefully Miller is OK. Shoulder injuries can be really bad. Dodgers need him at his best to make a deep playoff push.
@amk….Ryan? Am I missing something?
River Ryan on 60 day IL with shoulder fatigue. Not expected to be throwing at all before late May or June
Intereted to see how Nastrini looks for the White Sox. Dodgers usually don’t trade their best, but he has at least stayed healthy.
Hurt, Knack and Vanasco called up today.