The Dodgers announced that right-hander Michael Kopech has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to inflammation in his right knee. Righty Will Klein was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move.
Klein’s locker in the clubhouse was noted by several L.A. beat writers earlier today, leading to speculation that Kopech was going to be sidelined since manager Dave Roberts said yesterday that Kopech was playing at less than 100 percent. Kopech addressed his situation with MLB.com’s Sonja Chen and other reporters, noting that his command was being impacted by “a couple different things right now” and not just his knee soreness.
The reliever also noted that he has had difficulty performing given the stop-and-start nature of his injury-plagued season. Kopech has tossed only 11 innings in 2025 due to a pair of stints on the 60-day injured list — one due to a shoulder impingement, and another due to a prior bout of knee inflammation. While the righty has a 2.45 ERA over his 11 frames, Kopech is clearly not himself, issuing 13 walks against 12 strikeouts.
Given the timing of the IL placement, Kopech’s regular season is now officially over, and his availability for both a first-round playoff series (and the playoffs in general) now seems in question. Roberts hopes that resting Kopech now will get him healthy for the postseason, and described Kopech as “pitchable” right now, but the Dodgers felt it was wiser to give the right-hander some time off now with a playoff berth already clinched.
Even if Kopech is fully healthy, it is anyone’s guess as to how he might pitch in October. As much as the Dodgers might be tempted to go with another arm for their playoff roster, it was just a year ago that Kopech was one of the key figures in the team’s World Series run. After Kopech was acquired from the White Sox at the trade deadline, he posted a 1.13 ERA over 24 regular-season innings for Los Angeles, and then posted a 3.00 across 10 playoff innings.
Nine games left in the season, Roku Sasaki, Brock Stewart, Ben Casparius and even Andrew Heaney make more sense.
Even Bobby Miller or Landon Knack would be better options.
Not Bobby Miller.
Thirteen earned runs in his last 11.3 innings according to MILB stats game log.
Bobby Miller’s numbers have been significantly better since pitching out of relief in triple-A OKC.
Bobby Miller has given up 13 earned runs in his last 11.3 innings pitching out of relief. That is a complete and utter failure for 2025 purposes.
And Kyle Hurt.
It’s all Mark Prior’s fault.
Where have I heard that before?
Yeah, he’s awful.
I hope Stewart can get through his rehab assignment in time to get a couple of appearances next week.
F the Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!
Why?
Sorry the Dodgers got Freddie Freeman from your Braves, “MM.MM”. The Braves won’t win anything in a long, long time. Stay salty and angry. You also cheered Tanner Scott’s injury in Scott’s injury article, so that’s all that’s needed to show who you are.
hahaha Ill send you an autograph, bud! Yankees haven’t won in longer! xD
@MM.MM
Which one? All of them? Sounds time consuming.
He has managed to pitch 35 innings in the last season and a third. Good luck.
Definitely an interesting first round Dodgers vs. Mets. Both teams have very high expectations, and only one team will move further into October.
Yeah, I heard that was the rule.
The Brewers, Phillies, Dodgers, Cubs and Padres are all a tier above the Mets.
Looking forward to Phillies v. Dodgers, very evenly matched
Looking forward to Brewers v. Cubs/Padres winner. Freddy Peralta will be available to pitch games 1 and 5 (if needed), which is the only reason that I give the Brewers a slight edge in that series
Honestly, Kopech won’t be missed much in the postseason. Last season was an outlier in his body of work, which overall is right around average for a reliever. I’m more interested in Henriquez. He throws smoke, though it’s hard to predict where it will go. Sasaki could take a bullpen spot too, though probably more in middle relief.
I’d rather trot out Kershaw, Dreyer and Vesia and save Sasaki for 2026.
I suspect Sasaki will be on the active roster by Monday. He’ll get a tryout almost for certain.
I am also confident that Sasaki will get that tryout. I think it is a bad call. I also know that every team, especially the Dodgers, have people more knowledgeable than me doing the evaluations. Not what I would do though.
I will allow the people with the information to figure this out. But for discussion’s sake I am wondering what downside you see in giving Sasaki a few innings over the last week of the season to see what he’s got.
I wonder if anyone in the league office will be interested (probably not) in Roberts’ comment that Kopech is “pitchable right now” but is going on the IL nonetheless. Andrew Friedman must love his manager’s conversations with the press.
Sure, we hear about the league office questioning IL assignments all the time. Not!
Dave Roberts is Andy Friedman in a uniform. Shocking the number of fans who haven’t figured this out yet.
League rules require medical records be available for all IL assignments, Governor Connolly.
I’m just thankful Will Klein had a solid outing, striking out the side last night. I would much rather see him on the postseason roster than Yates at this point.
Yates is seriously struggling and his confidence is in the tank. I really think he wasn’t quite ready for the expectations of this team when he signed. At least that’s what it seems like. He’s been trying not to fail all season.