Today: Following last night’s game, Roberts told Ardaya that Treinen felt a problem in his hip after his appearance on Sunday against the Athletics. It likely isn’t serious, however, and Treinen could return to the team as soon as his minimum 15 days on the IL are up.
August 5: The Dodgers activated right-handed pitcher Brusdar Graterol from the 60-day injured list ahead of tonight’s game against the Phillies, the team announced. To make room on the active roster, the club placed fellow right-handed reliever Blake Treinen on the 15-day IL with left hip discomfort. The Dodgers already had an open spot for Graterol on their 40-man roster.
Graterol and Treinen both wound up on the IL in spring training, but while Treinen returned to the field in May, Graterol has been out all year. His injury was initially described as hip tightness and inflammation in his throwing shoulder, but seemingly, the shoulder issue was the bigger problem. He started throwing off a mound again in early April, but the Dodgers shut down his throwing program a few weeks later because his arm wasn’t bouncing back as well as they might have hoped. After that, the team seems to have decided to take things particularly slow with the young flamethrower. Graterol started throwing bullpen sessions in mid-June and began his minor league rehab assignment in mid-July. After eight rehab appearances, he is back in Dodgers blue for the first time this season.
After coming over from the Twins in 2020 as part of the package for Kenta Maeda, Graterol slowly became a key player in the Dodgers’ bullpen. He was an especially important piece for manager Dave Roberts from 2022-23, pitching to a 2.08 ERA and 3.06 SIERA in 114 games. Often serving as a set-up man for closers Craig Kimbrel and Evan Phillips, he led the team with 29 holds and ranked second among Dodgers relievers in Win Probability Added over those two years. Across his four seasons with the Dodgers, he has also made 21 appearances in the playoffs, pitching to a 1.71 ERA and 2.52 FIP.
Still just 25 years old, Graterol is making $2.7MM this season in his first year of arbitration eligibility. He is set to reach free agency following the 2026 campaign.
Treinen, 36, had been enjoying a triumphant comeback campaign after missing most of the 2022 and ’23 seasons with a shoulder injury. In 34 appearances, the righty has pitched to a 2.67 ERA and a 2.81 SIERA. His fastball velocity is down about three miles per hour, but his 30.6% strikeout rate is the highest it’s been since his All-Star season in 2018. That has a lot to do with his slider, which has been one of the best whiff-inducing pitches in baseball this season. Thus, Roberts has given Treinen the ball in plenty of high-leverage spots; no Dodgers pitcher has a higher average leverage index when entering games in 2024 (per FanGraphs).
It is unclear how serious Treinen’s injury is or how much time he will miss. However, if Graterol picks up where he left off in 2023, the Dodgers will have no trouble replacing Treinen’s production at the back end of the bullpen. What’s more, right-hander Michael Grove is also nearing his return from the injured list, which will give L.A. another right-handed option for the bullpen.
Hmm. I was thinking they would have to DFA Honeywell or Banda, despite their solid pitching.
No way Banda gets DFA. Left handed and given them exceptional performance
Banda is likely to reach his sell-by date at some point. He is pitching far above his career performance for no apparent reason. He is facing the gravity of probabilities. Honeywell is another one likely to hit the bricks before long for the same reason.
So was Ryan Brasier last year but he didn’t.
Wonder why Honeywell hasn’t thrown? Because he’s the long guy. So who’s the long guy when they get rid of him like you’ve been saying.
@baseballer:
It’ll be Michael Grove, who’ll eat innings into September.
And then, if Buehler somehow finds something upon which to build, it’ll be him in Grove’s place.
No one’s fault, so much as it’s an extreme roster crunch–roughly 18(-ish) pitchers for just 13 spots…..
So was Evan Phillips. Banda never threw 97 in his career with a nasty slider. Didn’t look due for expiration last night when made Harper look silly
Guess we will see. Friedman stacked guys in on top of guys moves will be made. Just see what plays out. At the end of the day he had to.
Nobody looks due until it happens. Unless something changed in a pitcher’s approach or he’s pitching uninjured for the first time in his career, assuming the improvement in performance in a single year was the result of being sprinkled with Dodger Faery Dust is probably not a good one.
Seeing how poorly Phillips has performed over the last month you have to wonder if he’s hit his expiry date already. But on him you have less prior history to go on than for Banda. He’s been around for long enough to have a documented track record of being below average in just about every pitching metric. The Dodgers have carried a lot of his kind of reliever. They squeeze as many innings as they can out of them and drop them when they combust.
Grove is probably next in line to be the long man if Honeywell doesn’t stick.
I’m not a huge Brasier believer but at least his career pitching metrics point to him being somewhat above average. Banda, not.
They might be worried about Treinen’a innings, given his inactivity the past two years.
Grove and then Brasier are coming back. The axe will fall on somebody.
Grove still can be sent down. Hard to see them parting with Banda
I don’t see either one of them being an improvement over anybody in the bullpen currently.
Graterol? If he returns to throwing 100 mph BBs looking like you or me playing catch they’ll be just fine. I expect holding him back was because that’s what they wanted to see and there was no point in seeing less..
No, I was referencing Grove and Brasier. Neither one of them is better than what is already in the pen
Left hip discomfort, lol. Typical doyers.
Cry!
Crying? Lol. Just pointing out the pathetic nature of the doyers
Those darned hips are kinda important to a pitcher — but how would you know that, sniping from your orange velour couch…?
It’s not orange…it’s burgundy! Doyers are the most prolific abusers of the IL and you know it.
“and you know”
Telling someone else what their own opinion is is a tell-tale sign of a weak argument.
I guess you would know. Is that better? But seriously, if you don’t think the Doyers abuse the system, you haven’t been paying attention to them for the last several years. And it is fine by me if you think I am making a weak argument. I am actually not making one anyway. After all, I hope you are not telling me what my own opinion is…
“I guess you would know. Is that better? ”
No, that’s worse because now you just sound like a child. “Takes one to know one!”
“After all, I hope you are not telling me what my own opinion is…”
I didn’t, but the fact that you’re now parroting my previous statement indicates some frustration on your part.
I guess you can’t comprehend irony. That’s ok. It is an adult concept. However, since you are not disputing the doyers abuse the IL system, maybe you are the one frustrated.
“It is unclear how serious Treinen’s injury is” LOL.. Treinen threw shutout innings Saturday and Sunday. Didn’t the Mets get punished for something like this?
The Mets only got punished bc someone *really* didn’t like Billy Eppler and blew the whistle on him.
Evidence?
I saw him pitch both days…while he survived his typical warlock like slider movement was completely missing and something was obviously wrong. with him…I’m not surprised at all he’s on the IL.
@highflytball
Every team does this (as every team should). This is the time of year where deep teams and teams that cultivate strong farm systems rely on that depth to get them through the dog days, making roster moves exactly like this one.
Hope Blake enjoys the vacation, and resets after a couple shaky outings of late…..
But that depth is only available because they exploit the vagueness of the IL. Without phantom oblique pulls and tightness of this or that some of these players would end up released and onto another team
Yeah Dodgers have been IL manipulating for years. Blatantly. Nobody at the league cares.
“Blatantly”
Can you give me a “blatant” example?
Vegas…
you want facts instead of BS? How demanding.
Graterol is yet another pitcher coming back for the Dodgers sporting a sparkling 5+ ERA in AAA this season.
It was one bad game.
A rehab one at that.
Haven’t followed Brusdar since Twins traded him, but what happened to his K/9? I remember he was a fireballing K pitcher,10k/9..did LAD tweak something?
He still throws hard when healthy. His fastball is heavy. He gets a ton of ground balls. I don’t know if LA has him throwing a 2 seamer instead of a 4. But he’s always been at like 60% ground balls.
Yea he’s throwing majority sinker. Ground balls instead of ks. Guy still throws gas
He’s never been a high K guy during his time in LA. He’s something of an enigma. He has high velocity, but his specialty is weak contact. It’s weird.
Yeah typically high velo guys get a lot more fly balls but he defies that. He’s a lot like Zach Britton. Not as good as a prime Britton but they both throw/threw very high velo sinkers. Britton’s sinker was crazy I remember something like 80% gb rate.
This team just buys everyone and stockpiles and hogs talent then has to get rid of good people and players and in typical LA fashion throws them out like yesterday’s garbage in favor of the newest shiny toy in need of his 15 minutes of fame. They’ve ruined MLB by abusing the heck out of the cap-less system. It’s disgusting. They spend $1B and still “need” to buy more at the deadline. People are so sick of it except for the phony transplant clown fans of LA I guess.
see a therapist mickey
Again, seek help for your anger issues.
Maybe the Dodgers should just tank when they want to stockpile talent. That’s much better for baseball.
“hogs talent then has to get rid of good people and players”
So they hog talent AND get rid of good players? Which is it?
You can hog things and still get rid of some of them when it’s convenient. They buy more than any team’s share of star talent which results in throwing away some toys that aren’t as pretty and shiny anymore. Typical LA fashion — a good analogy for Hollywood and what the fabric of that garbage city is all about. And I wouldn’t be shocked if half the commenters here masquerading as Dodgers bandwagon “fans” are from somewhere besides California. And if they are they’re likely first generation because their parents had to escape the cold.
Welcome back finally Bazooka!!
Treinen probably having heart palpitations knowing Harris is going to be POTUS.
Brusdar down (again), Michael Grove probably will replace him
After 8 pitches his season is likely over. Grade 3 hamstring strain.