Dodgers manager Dave Roberts confirmed to the team’s beat this morning that setup man Brusdar Graterol won’t be ready for the beginning of the season (via Katie Woo of The Athletic). Roberts said earlier in camp that Graterol would be “slow-played” this spring as he works back from shoulder surgery that cost him the entire 2025 season. Until now, the team had not yet ruled the big righty out for the Opening Day roster.
Graterol didn’t pitch at all in 2025 after undergoing shoulder surgery in Nov. 2024. The 6’1″, 260-pound flamethrower only tossed 7 1/3 big league innings and another 9 2/3 minor league rehab frames in 2024 due to troubles in that shoulder. He last enjoyed a healthy season in 2023, when he rattled off a career-high 67 1/3 innings with a masterful 1.20 ERA. Graterol’s 18.7% strikeout rate was far lower than one would anticipate for a pitcher who routinely hits triple digits with his sinker, but he offset the lack of whiffs with a tiny 4.7% walk rate and a massive 64.4% ground-ball rate.
The 27-year-old Graterol came to the Dodgers in the 2019-20 offseason trade that shipped righty Kenta Maeda to the Twins. The Dodgers were keenly aware that the right-hander had already battled injury troubles in his young career at the time. He’s been terrific in L.A. when healthy (2.69 ERA, 11 saves, 38 holds) but has managed to pitch only 181 innings across the past five seasons due to persistent health troubles.
There’s still no definitive timetable on the right-hander’s return. Graterol had the labrum in his right shoulder repaired 15 months ago and hoped to be back in the second half of the 2025 season, but his rehab didn’t progress as swiftly as hoped. Despite having pitched just 181 innings in five seasons with Los Angeles, he’s now entering his final year of club control before free agency. It’d obviously behoove the hard-throwing young righty to get back on the mound sooner than later, but with the Dodgers looking to defend their World Series crown and Graterol hoping to land a nice contract in free agency next offseason, there’s incentive for both parties to make sure he’s at full strength and “slow play” his progression in the early stages of camp, as Roberts suggested last week.
Presumably, Graterol will head for the 15-day injured list when the season begins. There’s no indication he’s suffered any form of setback that would necessitate a monthslong absence. Whenever he does get the go-ahead to return, Graterol will join a high-leverage mix that also features Edwin Diaz, Tanner Scott, Alex Vesia and Blake Treinen.
I would be more shocked if he actually was ready to play.
gtime – I agree! And I’m so glad the Red Sox backed out of a trade that would have sent him to Boston.
yes, because getting connor wong, alex verdugo and jeter downs instead was so much better.
Lmao is this satire? Wong, Downs, and Verdugo ??? Lol
Two wings or wrongs don’t make it right. He would have been traded by Sox ownership by now had they secured him in the Mookie deal. Drs. were right in this isolated case but ownership was why Mookie was traded. Bloom had his orders and with the Dodgers the only team willing then to take Price, the only option was to LA. Bloom’s first attempt was rejected by the medical staff and the trade had to be re-worked. Was there another offer I’m missing?
The Dodgers 2024 bullpen did all the heavy lifting and went above and beyond to help win the world series.
Everyone understood there was going to be a price to pay for that in terms of injury and dead arms for 2025.
Blakes arm didn’t recover very well last year, but again it was expected. They just hoped for more than what they got from him. With a lot more rest and a full offseason, he should be much better this year.
Brusdar Graterol will be the equivalent of a nice mid season pickup once he’s healthy. No need to rush him.
This statement has been applicable since 2020.
And one of these years it’ll happen lol.
a bazooka is only good if it shoots
Would Graterol pitched more innings ,if he went to the Sox?Everything is easy to judge in hindsight.Plus Betts didn’t seem to want to be here.I think the bigger problem was,why didn’t the Sox sign Freddie Freeman before he went to the Dodgers.He was a free agent and Boston needed a first baseman.Knowing now that Casas has been miserable so far.
Because Freeman wanted to play for the Dodgers. He was born and grew up in SoCal.
I’m sure that was part of it, but the Dodgers were the only club to offer him 6 years.
Can you even count Treinen in the mix. Dodgers like him too much.
LAD do not win the WS in ‘24 without Treinen.
I think that two-year contract for Blake T was ill advised so the fact that they owe him all that money and they like him so much is why he’s back but he’s definitely on a downward trajectory, I mean, how many good 38-year-old relievers can you name? I personally don’t think he gets through the season, but they’ll just bury him on the DL rather then release him because Robert’s is obsessed with him.This is why the Diaz signing was so important.
There is an assumption in the Dodger FO that Scott is going to bounce back to what he was a couple of years ago, but if that doesn’t happen, there’s going to be problems in the bullpen, especially since trading top prospects, despite their depth ,is the thing that Dodgers FO least like to do so it probably won’t happen at the deadline. They go for guys with a very low prospect price.
Brusdar has a great arm, but he just looks like one of those guys that never gets through a season without multiple injuries some of which are going to take him out of consideration for a role in the playoffs.
How does a guy who pitches this little get hurt so much? I mean, at least John Means had a couple good seasons…
Throwing a baseball as hard as you can is very rough on the arm. Doesn’t matter if you throw 20 pitches once a year or a 100+ pitches every 5 days, it’s gonna hurt. Sometimes people just get more seriously hurt.
Eye-popping news!!!
Get better “Bazuca”. We all count on you.
If the staff is healthy by May this team is a juggernaut
It already is.
Just read an article this guy lost 20lbs to get back to 265 this offseason. 6’1” 285lb is quite a wide dude. That’s Bartolo realm just a bit taller.
“Lost 20 lbs”..Yes. That’s “Big Sexy” territory for sure. Pretty soon, he’ll be too fat and “sexy” for his uniform.
Reading is tough for you isn’t it? Selectively quoting two sentences to be a snarky dbag. You probably didn’t even read that article or this one.
there are actually Twins fans who still lament that trade
Count me as one of them
How? Lol. Graterol has done nothing
lol replied to myself
277 innings with 4.22 ERA or 181 innings with 2.79 ERA? Maeda produced.5 WAR less. He had one good Covid shortened season then was bad and had TJS. He didn’t even want to be in LA and Minnesota let them off the hook. Broussard best year, 2023, is also the Twins best year in this time period after Maeda was gone
He will be injured until they need to activate him for someone else who gets injured
277 innings with 4.22 ERA or 181 innings with 2.79 ERA? Maeda produced.5 WAR less. He had one good Covid shortened season then was bad and had TJS. He didn’t even want to be in LA and Minnesota let them off the hook. Broussard best year, 2023, is also the Twins best year in this time period after Maeda was gone
Why high-leverage?
Brusdar said in an interview that he was ready….obvious Dodger shenanigans like usual.
@manson
well when you have so little team talent you have to resort to “shenanigans.”
Maybe you haven’t noticed before, but players don’t decide when the player plays.
Guess the workout video he did with Bat Boys on youtube wasn’t enough proof for the Dodgers.
The Dodgers IL has a better staff than most teams’ main pitchers.
Do you read before you post? You contradicted yourself. Love the short reads from this site but y’all need an editor badly!
When I see this guys name, it reminds me a supplement named Geritol advertised on TV many years ago. It was about the only supplement advertised back in the 60’s. Now it seems every other commercial is a pill or some form of supplement.
Glad I’m not the only one who thinks that lol
I remember the people wanted him in the Betts trade.He has hardly played.Not saying Wong,Downs and Verdugo were a good get but Graterol,for his talent,is a waste.
Fun Fact : The Red Sox could have had Graterol in the Mookie Betts trade but preferred Jeter Downs in the deal.
“Sox could have had”..The Redsox were clearly worried about missing out on the next great “Jeter”.
Probably one of the top three worst trades in the Red Sox history. I’m guessing there. The worst part was there was really no reason to trade Betts.
@Shadow Did Betts request a trade?
If I remember correct they couldn’t come to terms on a contract extension. I don’t think Betts really wanted to leave but I think he wanted to maximize his potential earnings and the Red Sox weren’t comfortable with that so they sent him on his way.
If I recall correctly, the Red Sox offered him
10 years, $300 million and Betts countered with a 12 year, $420 million proposal. And they just weren’t able to find middle ground.
HB I knew it was something like that. I just couldn’t remember any details and I didn’t wanna look it up.
181 innings in 5 years??? Wow
Slow play it and phantom IL it if need be.
Managing that 400 man roster is hard for the Dodgers, thank God for that IL!
Have the Dbax managed to pull together 26 guys yet?
More than that, despite the Dodgers desperately trying to sign everyone they can in an attempt to not get embarrassed again like they did in 2023.
You hang onto that memory. It’s about all you have.
Surprise, surprise, surprise! In this instance, the Sox medical staff was right back when Mookie was traded.
They will also have Evan Phillips back by the AS break as well.
Know theyre champ champs but kinda premature to be making plans to break out Gratetol bath for opening day dont cha think?
6’1″ 260lbs is a lot of man 😳
He is exciting to watch on the mound, though. Dude throws some nasty heat. Hope he’s back soon.