6:20pm: Per Ardaya, Grove underwent surgery to repair his right labrum. Roberts added that Grove attempted to pitch through the issue dating back to last season, but the club opted for surgery after the issue did not respond well to an offseason of rest.
12:58pm: Michael Grove’s season has already come to an end, as the Dodgers right-hander underwent surgery on his throwing shoulder and will now miss the entire 2025 campaign, The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya reports. Grove’s last 2024 appearance came in Game 2 of the NLDS, and he was removed from the Dodgers’ playoff roster after that game with the first occurrence of this shoulder issue.
Manager Dave Roberts stated two weeks ago that Grove was expected to start the season on the injured list, as recovering from that postseason shoulder problem had cost the righty about a month of his normal winter ramp-up work. It isn’t yet known if Grove was trying to pitch through more discomfort or if a new issue was discovered after testing, but regardless, the 28-year-old will now unfortunately be sidelined until 2026.
This marks the second major surgery of Grove’s baseball career, as he had a Tommy John procedure in 2017 when he was still playing college ball at West Virginia. The Dodgers were still intrigued enough by his potential to make Grove a second-round pick in the 2018 draft, though between his injury rehab, the canceled 2020 minor league season, and simply some struggles in his first taste of pro ball, Grove didn’t really start delivering good numbers until 2022.
That same year saw him make his big league debut in the form of 29 1/3 innings of 4.60 ERA work, as Grove started six of his seven games. The right-hander started 12 of 18 MLB appearances in 2023, with Los Angeles cycling Grove up and down from Triple-A multiple times whenever they needed a fresh arm in the rotation or bullpen. Grove was also shuttled back and forth several times last season, though he worked primarily as a reliever and posted a 5.12 ERA over 51 innings.
Grove’s 5.48 ERA over 149 1/3 career Major League innings isn’t very impressive, yet his SIERA is a far more palatable 3.85. With decent strikeout (23.2%) and walk (6.9%) rates, plus several other solid peripherals, Grove’s under-the-hood numbers paint a far better picture of his ability, though he has a penchant for allowing home runs at inopportune times. Injuries also hampered Grove over the last two seasons, as he missed significant chunks of time with groin and lat-related issues, beyond the shoulder injury that took him off the Dodgers’ postseason roster.
Los Angeles overcame an absurd number of pitching injuries to capture last season’s World Series, and it already looks like the Dodgers’ staff will be facing more health issues in 2025. As per RosterResource’s projections, ten pitchers are set to begin the season on the injured list, with issues ranging from relatively minor injuries to season-ending problems (i.e. Grove’s surgery, or River Ryan and Kyle Hurt probably missing 2025 after undergoing Tommy John surgeries last year). This is on top of the several pitchers with checkered injury histories who are expected to be part of the Opening Day roster, such as Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani.
The Dodgers are so deep in pitching that the team is hoping the sheer volume of available arms can help cover for any more injuries that might arise during the season, and this is also why L.A. was so aggressive in adding Snell, Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, and others to their depth chart. While Grove isn’t exactly a household name amidst all of the Dodgers’ superstars, losing another innings-eating reliever removes another layer of security from the Dodgers’ plans.
There goes the Dodgers season…
Nah, this Grove’s no Lefty.
Yup, one by one up in smoke. The dodgers are done.
“The Dodgers are done”..When you can win a World Series and literally dominate the N.Y Yankees, while being fronted by pitcher Jack Flaherty and a diminished Walker Beuhler(5+ E.R.A), I’m guessing no one, single injury will take you down.
MLB Fan
The Dodgers “top” starting pitcher in the 2024 WS was Yosh. But I definitely agree with your general point and conclusion.
Tough break for wvu kid
Grand opening, Grand closing
Maybe the surgery will approve his ERA.
So here’s the thing about the Dodgers you don’t have to be pristine to have a spot on the team. Grove had a role on the team and he performed. His era might’ve been high but he was never meant to used as a high leverage guy. He was meant for garbage (I hate that term) time either in a blow out victory or loss. Or as an emergency spot starter and he served his role very well, a la Brent Honeywell.
Grove could gain a lot of knowledge in the recovery area.
Didn’t realize his ERA needed the permission.
Sucks for LA. They have zero SP depth.
They probably have more SP depth than anyone in MLB. Plus, Grove is a reliever at this point.
Humor. What a concept
Sucks for MLBTR. They have zero ways of commenting with a sarcasm font.
They have like 8 starters. Including Ohtani who isn’t considered a part of the 13 max pitchers any given team can have on their 26 man roster.
The Dodgers are unable to create top level pitchers themselves, they need to look for them on the market. Snell, Glasnow Flaherty, out of the country.
Kershaw, Buehler, Stone. Just to name three recent home grown Dodger pitchers. Try a little harder.
Biv doesn’t understand how to throw a sweeper properly and obviously either do the Dodgers because they would have trained them and not need to go out and find them.
Biv knows how to mute a no-nothing troll.
Biv wouldn’t recognize a sweeper even if it passed right in front of him. Seriously he has no clue how it’s thrown and the Dodgers teach it wrong in the pitching lab.
Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin. Ryan Pepiot, too.
3 pitchers since 2008???
Buehler, May, Gonsolin, Pepiot, Miller, Knack, Stone, Wrobleski, Hurt, Ryan, Frasso and a number of other pitchers than can see major league time. Not even a good troll
to be fair Frasso was drafted by the Blue Jays.
I guess if you count a bunch of pitchers other than Buehler and 1 season of Gonsolin that haven’t done much except for getting hurt you have a point
Exactly, the World Series isn’t going to be won with them contributing.
Didn’t Fraggle Rock May need TJS not long into his career?
“Unable to create”…I do believe the Dodgers franchise is known in history as one that created, molded and developed incredible pitchers. Do correct me if I’m wrong.
Julio Urias was a fine pitcher too.
Yeah, where is he now? I know he had legal trouble here in the states, but i believe many NPB teams definitely wants his service
Pepiot tambìen.
I guess the Dodger pitching lab created Sandy Koufax and the Yankees Ron Guidry. The Pirates or Rays didn’t develop Glasnow, The Rays didn’t develop Snell.
Who developed Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver.
If you tell a pitcher to throw high fastballs and a breaking ball away that’s not swing and miss that’s another not developing anything.
Logjammer: It’s time to stop these ridiculous “Ohtani Rules.”
My sarcasm detector is on….
Cue the “why wait until S.T. to address the problem” and “it’s Dave Roberts’ fault” comments.
Sounds like you have it covered already!
A few more of them to go…
Too bad they no longer have Brasier.
They already lost the Bra, it’s too late now.
Allows another dude on the 40 man and adds to the IL contract totals. Who will be the IL salary leader this year? Yankees- Dodgers or another team like the Angels.
Feel bad for the kid
Especially when he could have had surgery in October
I know everything easier in hindsight
They tried to get him thru it without surgery
As predicted. Ohtani and the rest soon to follow.
You’re predicting the entire pitching staff will have season ending surgery?
Yes.
If you have 2 surgeries there may be an issue that needs to be addressed. I’m curious what he changed? Perhaps he didn’t.
Dodgers ruin young arms
Pitching ruins young arms.
The Dodgers pitching lab creates injuries.
“Creates injuries”…And, apparently Championships, you can’t forget about Championships.
The championships weren’t cause of their pitching lab.
When you see Glasnow, Snell, Flaherty, Treinen guys like that, that’s not from the pitching lab. Why can’t they develop more than a few guys? Someone that knows what they are doing can teach that slider and sinker like the Pirates and in one year have a dozen guys in no time.
Looks like we will be going 161-1 now.
Tough break for the young man, but Grove wasn’t even lightly penciled into the roster this year. If he hadn’t been injured, he was more likely to be traded than played.
How can you be sure skies will be blue? Your meteorologists are out of a job
I know you kid Brew, but generally-skies are more blue than clouded close to 30 degrees latitude. Just part of global convection cycle trends.
Well this discussion went somewhere else in a hurry!
And sadly the somewhere else wasn’t all that funny blue, my apologies
Is a tough break for Grove. He already had an uphill challenge trying to crack the LAD rotation, and at age 28, now this.
This game shows no mercy, but I will.
@Brew….I thought you were making a faux facetious comment.
But yeah, meteorology talk is generally not a laugh inducing topic.
What Grove maybe lacks in ceiling like May, Stone, Miller, or Gonsolin, he seems to make up with hard work and continually working to improve.
Hopefully that work ethic serves him well in his rehabilitation from surgery..
@paddy or, people we need in order to save lives (or plan our fishing trips) losing their jobs indiscriminately isn’t a laughing matter…But ok, I’ll get back to sports…
Hurricanes are hilarious. Floods are fabulous.
The Dodgers Pitching Lab: A warning about what we teach could be risky to your health and wealth.
The Dodgers are so loaded that no one will remember this guy’s name a month from now.
Remember whose name?
There so many guys I don’t even remember from last season. Forgot J-Hey was actually on that team….
A month from now they won’t be loaded. The parade to the TJ doc has just begun.
They’ll patchwork the staff as usual in the playoffs. Pitching isn’t really the key for them anyway….
He shouldn’t have deferred his surgery
Another intelligent, creative and supremely hilarious attempt at deferral humor. Oh it’s a Padres fan. Makes sense.
My favorite stereo type is the NAD C 3050, though the Yamaha A-S801 is excellent too
Present company excepted.
Well okay then
With an additional layer of medical care ignorance from a random sports fan wondering why an athlete didn’t cut himself up sooner to please the mob. Surgery is typically the last method to address an issue.
Pardon my rant, Padres2025 may be 12. In my 12th year, I did not have the internet to bravely share my ignorance with the world.
Have you heard about a volunteer who helped a future current HOF pitching coach last year with the teams pitchers? The Dodgers could benefit that guy to help them stay healthy.
One down, ten to go. Dodgers can’t seem to keep pitchers on the field.
Feels like every day I open the site another pitcher is down. Sheesh.
Yeah, hard to believe, especially with only about a thousand of them in camp.
I wonder if it wouldn’t happen if you didn’t open the site?
If that is a quantum mechanics reference then I enjoyed it very much.
Yeah, and a bit of Popperian theory of falsification
Whoa, so does this mean if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, it still makes a sound?
not if it falls on deaf ears
schrodinger’s pitcher, injured and not injured at the same time
Why can’t the Dodgers develop a Glasnow, Snell, Flaherty? Just teach that nasty slider, wash and repeat. Why pay all is Jack for these guys?