10:00PM: Roberts provided a few more updates on the pitching staff in today’s meeting with reporters (including Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times). Snell and Glasnow will throw bullpen sessions tomorrow, and Sheehan will make another Triple-A rehab start this week with the aim of going four innings deep into the game. “If he can do that, then he’s sort of going to be a viable conversation” for an activation from the IL, Roberts said. Matt Sauer has also joined the team in San Diego on the taxi squad, and could be officially recalled if the Dodgers need a fresh arm for the remainder of their series with the Padres.
10:30AM: Right-hander Tony Gonsolin became the latest Dodgers pitcher to hit the injured list over the weekend, but an MRI to evaluate his ailing elbow showed that his surgically repaired ulnar collateral ligament is intact, writes Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. Manager Dave Roberts said there’s no timetable yet for Gonsolin to resume throwing. An exact diagnosis of his injury remains unclear.
Even with the uncertain outlook, it’s a sigh of relief for the Dodgers that Gonsolin isn’t facing renewed damage in that UCL. Another tear would’ve sidelined him more than a year and possibly kept him out through the end of the 2026 season. That’d likely have ended Gonsolin’s Dodgers tenure, as he’s owed a raise on a $5.4MM salary this offseason and is only under club control through the 2026 campaign. Any injury that threatens to wipe out significant time in 2026 would result in a non-tender.
The 31-year-old Gonsolin’s return from his 2023 Tommy John procedure has been a mixed bag. He’s pitched in seven big league games this year, looking sharp out of the gate (2.81 ERA, 21-to-4 K/BB ratio in his first 16 innings) before stumbling over his past four trips to the mound. Since May 18, Gonsolin has faced the Angels, Mets (twice) and Yankees. He’s surrendered a combined 15 runs in 20 innings and served up 20 hits with an ugly 17-to-14 K/BB ratio. A whopping seven of those hits have been home runs.
Gonsolin is one of eight starting pitchers on the injured list — a number that doesn’t even include Shohei Ohtani, who’s still working his way back toward a return to the mound. Front-line arms like Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell have barely pitched this year and are on the 60-day IL at the moment. Touted young arms like Emmet Sheehan, River Ryan, Kyle Hurt and Gavin Stone opened the season on the injured list — the first three recovering from 2024 Tommy John procedures and the latter on the mend from a shoulder operation that’s likely to cost him the entire 2025 season. Prized young right-hander Roki Sasaki has been out for a month now due to a shoulder impingement.
At the moment, the Dodgers have a healthy Yoshinobu Yamamoto atop the rotation. He’s followed by franchise icon Clayton Kershaw, right-hander Dustin May and southpaw Justin Wrobleski. Veteran José Ureña is working a multi-inning role in the bullpen but has extensive experience as a starting pitcher. Rotation options down in Triple-A and already on the 40-man roster include Landon Knack, Bobby Miller, Nick Frasso and Matt Sauer. Frasso and Miller have struggled in the minors this year. Knack has been hit hard in seven big league starts. Sauer has been sharp in Triple-A and looked solid in a swingman role during limited MLB time.
Even with that laundry list of injuries, however, general manager Brandon Gomes downplayed his team’s need to go out and acquire starting pitching ahead of next month’s trade deadline. Chatting with Jon Heyman of the New York Post, Gomes stated: “With the information we have, and where the guys are now and progressing, the expectation is we will have all we need in-house.”
There could be some gamesmanship at play there, of course. It’s also notable that those comments came before Gonsolin’s placement on the injured list. Further injury troubles or setbacks for any of their on-mend-arms in the next six weeks can always heighten the need for outside help.
As things stand, the Dodgers do appear to have some near-term help on the horizon. The aforementioned Sheehan is about 13 months removed from his Tommy John surgery and is already on a minor league rehab assignment. He’s made three starts — one in the Rookie-level Complex League and two in Triple-A — and tallied nine innings of one-run ball with 14 strikeouts and just one walk (plus another plunked batter).
Sheehan tossed 57 pitches in his most recent outing on June 7. He’ll presumably need at least one more rehab start — very likely another couple — before he’s an option to rejoin the big league club, but Sheehan is a former top-100 prospect and is still just 25 years old. The right-hander’s 96.3 mph average fastball is actually up a bit from his pre-surgery levels, though it’s worth bearing in mind that he’s still effectively throwing short stints and thus not running into any velocity decline as he turns a lineup over two or three times. Regardless, his rehab work is encouraging, and Sheehan could be an option to help the big league staff before the end of the month.
Dodgers will trade for a front line starter prior to the deadline. They would take Skenes but he will likely be unavailable. Dodgers are in it for a billion dollars in terms of future deferred salary . The investment/ holding company Guggenheim must have them win so they can be sold for a large profit well before those commitments become due . Losing does not fit with those plans.
Those commitments are already due (or will be due in the next year or so). They just go to escrow. It’s not like a decade for now they’ll be at risk of defaulting.
When Ohtani’s tenure in LA is over, so is the Dodgers’ financial obligation.
Exactly. The present value of a deferred contract is deposited into a separate account. They are team-managed (so, not an escrow in the true sense) and are reported to MLB quarterly. The only way the Dodgers can get themselves into trouble with these deferral accounts is if they are unable to make the very modest APR return required by the CBA to cover the payouts. Worst-case scenario is Wilpon with the Mets. He invested deferred salary with Bernie Madoff, who made off with it. Guggenheim manages its own money.
Sort of almost. The way I read it, the team has until 7/1 of the year “following” to fund each year preceding.
So, within 20 days or so, the 2024 amount will be paid into escrow. Meaning, after the contract, they will have about 10 months to fund the last year. And then, it’s over.
I guess nothing keeps them from funding early.
Yes, the start of funding the deferral accounts can be delayed by a year under the CBA rules, but with a multiyear deferral such as Ohtani’s, this is really just a technicality, since once the contributions start, they continue annually thereafter.
And these are not, as I mentioned, escrow accounts. This might seem like a minor distinction, but it is not. The teams hold the money, not a third party, and they can invest it pretty much as they see fit.
Blue – a distinction maybe but I think they are still escrow accounts in that they cannot be co-mingled with other funds of the owner and the owner does not have discretion as to accessing and utilizing said funds (collateral for a loan for example) and thus, the best terminology is likely escrow.
Yes, they can invest them with the intent of placing present day dollars in so those grow to deferred day payment. It’s the usage restrictions that make it an escrow accounts in on behalf of the ultimate recipient.
By definition, escrow accounts are held by a third party. These are more like trust accounts, held by the teams and invested by them in trust for the player, and reported quarterly to MLB. I don’t recall the exact investment parameters allowed by the CBA, but even those can be expanded with the agreement of the player. In Ohtani’s case, I predict some of what they owe him will be converted into an equity share in the Dodgers.
Not really – I have 3 escrow accounts with my firm where I keep client funds separate from my operating funds.
Really.
escrow | ˈeskrō | Law
noun
a bond, deed, or other document kept in the custody of a third party and taking effect only when a specified condition has been fulfilled.
The word may often be used improperly, but this is its definition. You are describing a trust account. The holder of the trust is taking on a fiduciary relationship with the beneficiary of the account.
Well because of that, I’ll tell my bank that those monthly statements that they send to my law firm with “escrow” in the title needs to change how they do business.
There is no law that says the fiduciary cannot also be the holder of the escrow account.
I don’t know what the law says, nor can I speak to what kind of business your law firm does, but I do know what the dictionary says escrow means. It means third party. I also know what the CBA says about deferred compensation. It makes no reference to escrow accounts. In fact, it says quite clearly that the clubs can invest the funds almost entirely in any way they see fit. The CBA does make reference to escrow accounts in other sections and in cases where the commissioner’s office acts as the escrow agent. Not in this one. This isn’t simply a debate about semantics, if you are at all interested in how deferred compensation in MLB works.
I’m an accountant, and alas picky as we can be I don’t know anyone who would go to these lengths to try and correct someone on using the word escrow instead of money market, self reserve, contingency, etc.
The point of language is to communicate a point, and you clearly knew what they meant, so why continue to badger them about semantics?
Money market?
I agree, the point of language is to communicate. That’s why you should choose the right words. Why the distinction is significant was explained. Maybe you missed that part.
But then, who asked you?
I’m sure most women would thoroughly enjoy your company on a date. You could argue about table selections.
Your bank is the third party for your escrow accounts. The local tax collector and insurance agency is the ones getting paid at the end from you. The bank is just the third party paying it for you.
Thanks for the consideration, pal, but I have no problems on that score.
Not really, because you control the funds, and the bank is paying these bills on your instructions. In an escrow, the funds are held until the agent of the escrow determines that conditions set by the other two parties in the transaction have been met. Big difference, and a key one in understanding how deferred compensation works in MLB. So this message is only for those who care to know. Maybe one in ten?
But, wow. I know financial knowledge is weak in general, but I am always surprised at how bad it is.
“Those commitments are already.
..When Ohtani’s tenure in LA”..I read in Forbes 2 weeks ago that the Dodgers are expected to gain an additional $2.75+ BILLION dollars in advertising, licensing and sponsorships during the next 10 years of the Ohtani partnership.
When someone goes down, they buy another and defer his contract for the next owner to get stuck with.
Someone needs to learn about the MLB contract deferral process….
There’s no new ownership coming to the Dodgers and the players defer their salaries, not the team. And it’s the Dodgers. What do you expect them to do with all their money? Run like the Reds?
If ALL revenues were shared like most sports, that wouldn’t be a problem. But the large markets want their extreme advantage with their local TV money and their boy Robby the Robot will continue to fiddle as the game dies in most of the country. That’s why the Twins, Angels, etc. were never sold. No one is paying into an unequal system with no real profit potential. Billionaires aren’t Billionaires by making bad business decisions.
Ownership changes on the average about every 20 years on a team. I know of three different owners the Dodgers have had in my lifetime and that’s a large market.
Well.. I watch baseball and no other sport. But you’re still wrong. Baseball hasn’t had a back to back championship since the Yankees in ‘99 and ‘00. And there have been 16 different MLB clubs (more than half the teams in baseball) that have won a championship in the 25 years since. The NFL? 14. NHL? 13 NBA? 10. So where is this parity with the other collectively bargained, sports leagues?
The Dodgers paid and will pay more money in luxury tax penalties, than a lot of teams spend on their entire payroll. And without that CBT money, some of these smaller market teams can’t even survive. So if you’re a fan of a small market team that needs revenue sharing to survive.. you should be thanking the Dodgers for how they spend.
So now people are so jealous that they are dreaming up a day when the team is sold? lol, maybe dream about your team getting a good owner too.
“They would take Skenes but he will likely be unavailable.”
29 teams would take Skenes off the Pirates’ hands.
By they would take I mean they would overpay grandly to get him . Not 29 teams would overpay grandly for him ; most would want fair to slightly disadvantageous trade. dodgers will overpay if he was made available .
Nice fantasy story there Tolkien
@YellowCleats
How is it possible to STILL not understand how deferrals work, considering the vast amount of reporting on the subject in just the last year….?
Guggenheim–a massively successful hedge fund whose primary expertise is in reaping profit while investing other people’s money–is MAKING MONEY on every deferred deal.
That said, they’ll still likely add at the deadline, because their system is loaded with prospects….
Chris Sale, you are a Dodger!
I don’t think Atlanta will trade him this year unless they get an offer they just can’t pass up.
They will want to try and be contenders next season which will likely keep him in Atlanta.
braves25: With the way the Dodgers pitching staff has been dropping like flies the past two years, Sale would almost certainly be on LA’s IL before he even threw a pitch.
Sale and Acuña are both getting traded
I think Ozuna will be the first one traded.
But if you are correct and they trade both Sale and Acuna, then they should trade Murphy, Riley, and Olson also. Do a complete rebuild.
I don’t see that happening though. Ozuna, yes, he will likely be traded. I could see Murphy possibly being traded as well. Iglesias will likely be available also.
I could see all those you mentioned except Riley and Olson their deals are long term n still good players
I think Atl will try to resign Acuna early and see if he will give them a discount. He said he wants to be with 1 team his whole career, so we will see.
I think Riley will be the guy they keep for sure.
Tell yourself that. They would be crazy not to trade an aging pitcher and get a nice return for him and start to build a farm system.
@Mets Era…
If they can get a big return for Sale, which I think they should, then I am all for trading him. I just don’t want to trade him just to trade him.
In terms of money, he is cheap as well. 18 million for next year. So, a team trading for him would be getting 2 playoff runs out of the reigning Cy Young. If the Braves trade him, they better get a HUGE haul back.
I don’t see Gomes’ comments as gamesmanship. The Dodgers have six starters on the IL currently, all of whom they fully expect to pitch again this year. If they go shopping next month (or sooner), it will be for bullpen help.
This “the latest” article is already out of date
How so?
it’s the Dodgers rotation in 2025 Blue, like trying to keep up with news on tariffs.
Who is SP Tuesday night?
Gotta be a Bullpen game Tuesday
Not sure. MLB redesigned the website recently and made this information hard to find.
(I am surprised nobody is complaining about this redesign. It was improved from bad to completely awful.)
I’m frequently amazed about how the official websites for the big american sports leagues manage to be so bad at just giving you basic information about what’s going on in games/the league. MLB.com used to feel a bit better than the other three, but every time they change it it gets worse ;_;
No joke. Good luck finding the standings on the desktop version. It’s there, but very well hidden. Tomorrow’s starters? Yesterday’s box score? Used to be one click away. Now, it’s buried.
They want to add more room for betting odds, it’s sad
And those lame videos, where the bottom part is shaded over. It’s like nobody eats their own dogfood anymore.
Looks like Matt Sauer called up to start Tuesday
The Dodgers say that now, but I can see them being in on a starter down the line. Things can change in a month.
I don’t see the Dodgers in first place this time next week.
Of course you don’t.
He’s too busy digglin his dicker to see 1st place.
Because it’s so easy to see it. A blind man can see where the Dodgers are heading.
“A blind man can see where the Dodgers are heading”
October.
That’s what you all keep saying meanwhile they keep dropping down the pack. They sure don’t scare anyone any more.
Pretty sure Andrew Friedman and co. are mainly worried about scaring you.
Dropping down from 1st place to checks notes, 1st place. Just because you say it doesn’t make it true.
They are a wild card weekend team now because you are in denial doesn’t make your Dodger team any better. What did they get shellacked by last night?
Right now the Padres can only win by throwing a shutout and they’ve thrown a league leading 12 this year. But that doesn’t seem a likely outcome against LA.
SF’s offense is just as bad. So I predict SF won’t be in 1st place by next Monday morning.
Man just from scanning the box scores it seems like Manny is the only one hitting in SD. What’s up with Nando? Is he still pulling grounders down the third base line like he was doing against Seattle??
Nando, fearing the pee cup, has stepped away from his “supplements” regime. The slump is purely coincidental.
Generally agree that they need bullpen reinforcements, but I have my doubts that even if Glasnow returns at some point he doesn’t make it thru the season. Fragile in unexpected ways.
Think they should be calling the Brewers on Civale or Quintana but don’t it they wanna keep all their young talent down in the minors until they are 27 or 28 so they can’t even have a career.
They have a dozen or so starters and have issues running a solid 5 while the Mets host nothing more than a three slot pitcher at best and manage to have the best ERA in the NL and second overall. Go figure.
Well then why did 56,934 comments on this site say explicitly “Mets need an ace”?
Kodai Senga
Clay Holmes
Sean Manaea
To be fair, the way commenters have been describing the Dodgers and their boogeyman billion-dollar payroll and deferrals, they thought they’d be undefeated at this point of the season when they’re at 39-27. Go figure.
The IL manipulation continues…
Brandon Gomes has a private chat on Telegram with Billy Eppler
Because they obviously want to put another starting pitcher on the injured list.
It’s cute you acknowledge the dodgers are playing 4D chess in your brain.
MLB needs to stop thus shut. Something fishy in LA.
This time of year it’s mostly Sea Bass.
“Today’s Dodger’s starting pitcher will be Bill Higgins of section C, row 12, seat #132.”
Poor Dodger’s I guess 500 million dollar payroll isn’t enough.
“Poor Dodgers..500 million”…People complain when teams spend money and also complain when they don’t spend money. Talk about damned if you do, damned if you don’t. It’s no wonder teams often just ignore their fans.
Couldn’t be happening to a more deserving team! The baseball gods are cruel but fair and this is what you get for buying championships. Meanwhile if you like torture or thought you did 15 years ago as a Giants fan then boy are you in for a treat these last few weeks watching the Giants fight and claw their way back to within one game. All of the top 3 teams in the NL have reasons to be happy with where they are as well as frustrated whether you’re the Padres, Giants, or smurfs. Should make for a really entertaining next 4 months of baseball
they had pitching injuries last season and the gods cursed them with a WS title
Seriously, winning a chip couldn’t happen to a more deserving team….
Unfortunately the gods could only curse one team that buys their championships and both made it to the WS
You should be an A’s fan, being so green with envy
And STILL in first place…
If the Rangers don’t turn things around, quickly, I can see Mahle in a different uniform.
I’m guessing Glasnow comes back for a couple games and then something else falls off and costs him the season. He’s just that guy. Thought the 5 innings and out would be doable with him but he’s getting cramps, numbness, elbows and shoulders. Did the have a back injury once? Snell, I think will be okay once he’s over whatever ails him right now. Sasaki is a concern since his concern is throwing 100mph again. I never thought Emmet Sheehan and possibly River Ryan at a later date would be the saviors of the rotation, but here we are.
Yamamoto, Kershaw, Sheehan, and Sasaki is good enough and add a healthy Snell and they’ll be just fine. Keep Glasnow and late in the year, Ryan, and they’ll be just fine. Hurt is out there, too.
Anyone but Bobby Miller….
The Dodgers will sometimes outsmart themselves. Case in point, trading a good, cheap, healthy young starting pitcher in Pepiot for an expensive, fragile and always injured Tyler Glasnow.
Glasnow was their ace last season even though he didn’t pitch in October he still helped them a ton. Pepiot walks too many guys and doesn’t strike out enough
That trade was huge for the Dodgers last year, and Glasnow was a solid contributor so I dont think you’ve made a solid case at all. If the Dodgers were a welfare team like the Rays then money would be a significant factor, but they are not. Four months remain in the regular season, Glasnow may yet be a solid contributor in ’25.
The Dodgers have been making some absolutely wreckless investments lately with their windfalls and fistfulls of cash. It is truly “F* You” money at this point. Whoever wants to give accolades to Friedman anymore for being some baseball genius/guru has failed to discern that he has truly jumped the shark. Case in point: throwing away money on Tanner Scott, Conforto, Edman…if he was the GM anywhere else, that wouldn’t fly.
You aren’t even a good troll. NLCS MVP and crucial piece of a championship team Tommy Edman was a bad acquisition? Sure buster
Massive good luck in an extremely small sample size doesn’t usually justify a hugely overpriced extension for a glorified low-OBP utility man.
He plays SS or CF on a whim and gives you above average offense. On the the open market he would get 50-65 million so they overpaid him barley but not some egregious move. If Scott can get anything close to the player he was last year it’s a great contract
Got off to a hot start in the HR department with 8 bombs before leaves blossomed. Only one since. Not stealing bases and lousy OBP. No way anyone but LA would pay him $60 million. Okay, maybe the other LA team would because they throw money around like candy on Halloween. Mostly, they get a toothache for their efforts.
“if he was the GM anywhere else,”
He would not have the World Series.
Seriously, what do the Dodgers do to starting pitchers to have such an extreme level of injuries? Is it just because they trade for, sign, and draft hard throwers who always are TJ risk or do they misuse their guys, especially at the major league issue?
Yamamoto last year, Glasnow, Snell, Sasaki, Sheehan, Ryan, Stone, Hurt, Kopech, Yates, Miller’s shoulder, and May the last couple of years… If healthy, that is the most insanely great pitching staff that I can recall. Why has it been so unhealthy?
They prioritize high ceiling pitching over injury risk. The idea is once the post season starts, the high ceiling pitching will be an advantage.
They don’t need everyone to be healthy in the playoffs.
They just need enough of them to be able to pitch in the playoffs.
They had 1.5 starting pitchers with a high end bullpen last year and won the WS. Imagine if they have just 3 high level starters and a similar bullpen this year.
Dodgers are basically load managing their rotation, and taking advantage of IL rules.
They can do that when they spend hundreds of millions more than the rest of the league.
Sport is broken.
Well, it dint work last season. They’ll acquire another rotation arm but will prolly still need to bullpen-game it through the playoffs again. Cuz all their starting pitching will be enjoying the show in the dugout with their hoodies on….
Dodgers won the WS. It worked.
I see the dodgers going after Tyler Mahle before the trade deadline.
Dodgers are masters manipulating the IL.
They’ve been doing it for years.
Most of those guys are not hurt.
It’s called, “Rotation “.
Foiled. The grandmaster plan was to run a 20-man rotation.
SD starts this series with some mug with a 5.50 ERA.
Like he’s gonna stop LA’s bats.
Good gawd.
Dodgers aren’t the same team as last year. They have depth but not too many aces
Yamamoto
Ohtani
Snell
All aces when healthy.
Snell is arguably not an ace because of injury and innings. He doesn’t pitch enough innings and was only an ace two or three years max.
The other two I agree, but Ohtani hasn’t thrown a pitch yet this year and who knows if he will be the same after TJS
My point still stands… this year they are short aces
You have zero clue on how good Ohtani will be when he pitches. Snell isnt nearly as good as you think he is.
The blind expert opines again.
In his defense, I’m not sold on the Mets pitching either. Their offense is solid, though.
You keep talking and the Dodgers keep getting shellacked. Keep it up.
I already said I didn’t trust the Dodgers rotation. Said that from the start
Class will out. Not worried.
Julio Urias time!
Almost every one of the bottom dwellers has a SP of some merit. Should not be difficult to pry one or two SP with a trade(s). Gotta be done. Can’t expect to win another WS deploying bullpen games throughout the playoffs.
Of course, if Bobby Miller can ever find the strike zone consistently, it would be a huge boost and might even allay the need to be overly active in pursuing another SP.
Gotta hope Snell and Glasgow return and are who we believe they are. Sasaki hasn’t looked good at all. Not counting on him as being anything more than a #5 starter when he returns.
Snell is a prissy little punk.
Can’t start a season, won’t end a season.
Fodgers got burned.
Dodgers have nothing resembling a rotation.
Yet.
Prior to deadline dodgers could end up with one of degrom/mahle/eovoldi