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Dodgers Activate Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Designate Nick Ramirez

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8:23pm: Los Angeles also activated Brusdar Graterol from the 15-day IL and placed Anthony Banda on the injured list. Banda broke his left hand. That interrupts a solid year for the 31-year-old southpaw. Banda has pitched to a 3.23 ERA while striking out nearly a quarter of opponents in a personal-high 47 1/3 innings.

4:41pm: The Dodgers reinstated Yoshinobu Yamamoto from the 60-day injured list to start tonight’s game against the Cubs. Los Angeles designated lefty reliever Nick Ramirez for assignment to create space on the active and 40-man rosters.

Manager Dave Roberts announced last week that Yamamoto would make his return tonight. It’ll be the Japanese star’s first big league appearance since June 15. Yamamoto missed nearly three months on account of a rotator cuff strain. He should get a few trips through the rotation to continue building his shoulder strength going into the postseason.

Outside of his disastrous first major league start, Yamamoto has pitched like the top-of-the-rotation arm the Dodgers envisioned. He sports a 2.34 earned run average with a 28.1% strikeout rate through 73 innings over his past 13 starts. If he finds that form quickly now that he’s healthy, he could start the first game of a playoff series.

Ramirez loses his roster spot for the second time this season. The Dodgers had DFA him to accommodate their trade deadline pickups. He cleared outright waivers and accepted an assignment to Triple-A Oklahoma City. Los Angeles called him back up on Sunday. Ramirez pitched the final two innings of a 10-4 loss last night. He allowed three runs (one earned) on four hits.

Acquired from the Yankees in April, Ramirez has pitched in eight games for the Dodgers. The 35-year-old has surrendered 11 runs with seven walks and five strikeouts in 13 1/3 innings. He was an effective middle relief arm for New York skipper Aaron Boone a year ago, when he turned in a 2.66 ERA with a meager 5.2% walk rate over 40 2/3 frames.

The Dodgers will put Ramirez on waivers again this week. He’ll likely clear and would have the right to elect free agency, though he could stick with the organization as non-roster depth if he’s outrighted to OKC. Ramirez would become a minor league free agent in the offseason anyhow if the Dodgers don’t call him back up.

Marlins Claim Michael Petersen, Designate Brett De Geus

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The Marlins announced Tuesday that they’ve claimed right-hander Michael Petersen off waivers from the Dodgers. Fellow righty Brett de Geus was designated for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

Petersen made his big league debut at 30 years old this season, pitching 14 innings for L.A. and recording a 6.43 ERA with a 17.2% strikeout rate and 12.5% walk rate. He’d joined the Dodgers on a minor league deal after spending the rest of his career in the minor league systems of the Brewers and Rockies.

Though Petersen’s brief big league run didn’t turn heads, he was excellent with the Dodgers’ Triple-A club in Oklahoma City, pitching to a 1.64 ERA with a massive 35.2% strikeout rate and tidy 6.4% walk rate in 33 innings of relief. The towering 6’7″ righty sits 97 mph with his four-seamer and complements that with an upper-80s cutter. He’s in the first of three option years, as the 2024 season marked the first time his contract has been selected to a big league roster.

The 26-year-old de Geus pitched 5 2/3 innings with Miami and was tagged for four earned runs on seven hits and a pair of walks with four strikeouts. He’s also suited up for the Mariners this season (3 1/3 innings, one run) and has previously pitched in the majors with the Rangers and D-backs. Overall, the former Rule 5 pick has 59 big league innings with a 7.17 ERA. 16.9% strikeout rate and 9.7% walk rate. Now that he’s been designated for assignment, he’ll head to waivers and be made available to the other 29 teams. Because he’s been outrighted in the past, de Geus can reject a minor league assignment if he clears. Even if he accepts, he can become a minor league free agent at season’s end.

Dodgers Select Nick Ramirez

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The Dodgers announced this afternoon that they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Nick Ramirez. Lefty Justin Wrobleski was optioned to Triple-A in a corresponding move, and right-hander Michael Petersen was designated for assignment to make room for Ramirez on the 40-man roster.

Ramirez, 35, was acquired by the Dodgers in a trade with the Yankees back in April after the southpaw failed to make the Opening Day roster in the Bronx. A fourth-round pick by the Brewers back in 2011, Ramirez didn’t make his big league debut until 2019 as a member of the Tigers. He posted middling results in relief across three seasons with Detroit and San Diego from 2019-21, with a 4.55 ERA (101 ERA+) and 4.60 FIP in 110 2/3 innings of work while striking out 20.4% of opponents.

The lefty signed with the Mariners on a minor league deal headed into the 2022 season and posted impressive results at the Triple-A level, with a 2.93 ERA and a 23.7% strikeout rate in 55 1/3 frames, but was unable to crack the club’s big league roster. That led him to sign with the Yankees on a fresh minors pact for the 2023 season, and he enjoyed the best season of his career in the Bronx as he posted a fantastic 2.66 ERA and 2.94 FIP in 40 2/3 frames after being selected to the Cubs roster in late April, after which point he was shuttled between the majors and minors on a semi-frequent basis.

Unfortunately, Ramirez has not been able to replicate that same success with the Dodgers. He’s pitched 11 1/3 innings in the majors this year but has struggled to a 6.35 ERA with a 4.33 FIP and just four strikeouts. That lackluster production has carried over to his performance at Triple-A Oklahoma City, for whom he’s pitched to a 4.65 ERA in 31 innings of work this year with a lackluster 19.2% strikeout rate. The Dodgers are surely hoping he can improve upon that performance in his latest stint with the club, though he’s buried on the relief depth chart by both Alex Vesia and Anthony Banda in terms of left-handed options, likely leaving him to be used in exclusively low-leverage situations while with the club.

Ramirez takes the spot of Petersen on the 40-man roster. The righty got his first taste of big league action back in June when he was selected to the roster in the aftermath of Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s placement on the injured list due to a rotator cuff strain. The right-hander has served as an up-and-down bullpen arm for the Dodgers in the months since then, though his results have left much to be desired. In 14 innings of work across 11 appearances, Petersen has struggled to a 6.43 ERA with a 6.32 FIP in the majors, though he’s been nothing short of dominant at Triple-A with a sparkling 1.64 ERA and a 35.2% strikeout rate in 33 frames. If Petersen goes unclaimed on waivers, the Dodgers will have the opportunity to outright the right-hander to Triple-A where he can act as non-roster depth for the club down the stretch.

Teoscar Hernandez Expected To Avoid Injured List

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5:07pm: Hernandez is not in the lineup today, but told reporters (including Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic) that he expects to avoid the injured list after testing on his foot came back clean and he woke up today feeling better. Hernandez added that he hopes to back in the lineup during next week’s series against the Cubs, which begins on Monday.

9:07am: Teoscar Hernandez left Friday’s 3-1 Dodgers loss to the Guardians in the first inning, after the slugger was hit on the left ankle by a pitch from Cleveland starter Matthew Boyd.  Hernandez was in obvious discomfort when leaving the field, though the injury has been termed a foot contusion for now since initial x-rays were negative.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including MLB.com’s Juan Toribio) that more tests will be done on Hernandez’s ankle, but a trip to the injured list seems unavoidable.  “[Hernandez is] as tough as they come and he could barely move his foot….He doesn’t come out of games,” Roberts said.  “Afterwards, the pain typically subsides for him, but it didn’t.  It’s concerning.”

More will be known about Hernandez’s status later today, yet since it seems like he’ll certainly be going on the IL, the question is now whether or not we’ll see Hernandez on the field again in 2024.  Beyond just the regular season, the Dodgers certainly hope to be playing deep into the playoffs, yet such an extended run would obviously be a lot more difficult if Hernandez isn’t available.  Winning the NL West is also not a foregone conclusion, as the Dodgers hold a four-game lead on the Padres and a 5.5-game lead on the Diamondbacks.

Considering how Hernandez is also a free agent this winter, it is also conceivable that Friday might’ve marked the end of the left fielder’s tenure in Los Angeles altogether.  After a down year with the Mariners in 2023, Hernandez inked a one-year, $23.5MM contract with L.A. last winter with the idea that he could make a quick return to free agency this coming offseason on the heels of a rebound year.  That scenario has played out exactly as Hernandez had intended, as he has hit .266/.331/.488 with 28 homers over 581 plate appearances and earned a spot on the NL All-Star team.

Perhaps the key number in that statline is simply the number of plate appearances, as Hernandez has been one of the Dodgers’ pillars of stability amidst an injury-plagued season.  Almost literally every member of the L.A. pitching staff has spent time on the IL or had their season already ended by injuries, and Mookie Betts (fractured hand) and Max Muncy (oblique strain) also each missed months of time before returning in August.

Just when it seemed as though Los Angeles finally had its first-choice lineup all intact, however, the position-player depth will again be tested if Hernandez misses time as expected.  Any of Enrique Hernandez, Chris Taylor, Andy Pages, or Tommy Edman could be cycled into left field, though the Dodgers had also been using the right-handed hitting Hernandez and Taylor at second and third base, to shield the lefty-swinging Muncy and Gavin Lux against some southpaw pitching.  James Outman is the most probable Triple-A call-up, as Outman’s presence would further add to the outfield mix while perhaps keeping Lux and Enrique Hernandez more limited to infield duty.

Dodgers Place Gavin Stone On Injured List

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The Dodgers announced they have recalled right-hander Landon Knack and left-hander Justin Wrobleski. In corresponding moves, they have optioned righty Michael Petersen and placed righty Gavin Stone on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation.

At this point, it’s the path forward for Stone is fairly unclear. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman says the young righty will be shut down for about ten days and the plan from there will depend on how he feels at that point, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic on X. It’s likely to be a notable development regardless of how that plays out, both due to Stone’s strong performance this year and the other injuries in the club’s rotation.

Stone made his major league debut last year, making eight appearances, including four starts. He didn’t find immediate success, as he allowed 31 earned runs in his 31 innings last year, meaning he came into 2024 with his earned run average at an even 9.00.

But he has taken a significant step forward so far this year. He has made 25 starts for the Dodgers and logged 140 1/3 innings with a 3.53 ERA. His 20% strikeout rate, 6.4% walk rate and 44.2% ground ball rate are all fairly close to average for a starting pitcher this year.

Subtracting that kind of solid performance would be unwelcome for any club but it’s especially notable for the Dodgers, who have been suffering through a huge slate of rotation injuries this year and in the past as well.

Stone is actually the only pitcher on the club currently qualified for the ERA title, as he leads the team in both starts and innings pitched. That’s due to just about every other pitcher on the staff spending at least some time on the IL. Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Clayton Kershaw, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, River Ryan and Emmet Sheehan are all currently on the IL. Now that Stone is joining them, that gives the club eight viable starters currently on the shelf.

May, Ryan and Sheehan are done for the year due to major surgeries. Yamamoto is going to be reinstated next week but isn’t fully stretched out, having thrown 53 pitches in his most recent rehab outing. Glasnow is a few steps behind Yamamoto, as he’s playing catch but hasn’t yet taken the mound, per Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times (X link). Kershaw hit the IL a week ago due to a bone spur in his toe and has an uncertain timeline. Gonsolin is trying to come back from last year’s Tommy John surgery but will be limited to relief work, at best.

For now, the rotation consists of Jack Flaherty, Walker Buehler, Bobby Miller, Knack and Wrobleski. That group will be welcoming back Yamamoto soon but, as mentioned, he isn’t fully ramped up and might need a piggyback. Flaherty has some injury questions of his own, as he had back issues earlier this year with the Tigers, which reportedly scuttled a trade with the Yankees and led to him landing with the Dodgers instead. Buehler has a 5.67 ERA this year and Miller is at 7.79. Knack and Wrobleski each have less than 50 major league innings pitched.

It’s a less than ideal situation for a club that is still playing meaningful games. The club’s 84-56 record is tied with the Phillies for the best in baseball, but the Central-leading Brewers are just three games back, meaning a bye through the Wild Card round is no guarantee. The division isn’t totally sewn up either, as the Padres are just five games back of the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks 5.5.

Even if the Dodgers cruise into the postseason, having a banged-up rotation can cause trouble in a short playoff series, as the Dodgers know well. They won 100 games last year but their rotation was in shambles by the time the postseason rolled around, which led to them being quickly swept by the Diamondbacks.

At this point, it’s still technically possible that the Dodgers could have a postseason rotation consisting of Flaherty, Yamamoto, Glasnow, Stone and Kershaw, but there are question marks with each of them. That could perhaps lead to someone like Buehler, Miller or Knack sliding into the mix simply due to a lack of other options.

Dodgers To Activate Yamamoto Next Week

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Yoshinobu Yamamoto will return to the Dodgers’ rotation on Tuesday. Manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Alden González of ESPN) that the right-hander will get the start for the second game of next week’s set with the Cubs. Yamamoto is on the 60-day injured list and will need to be reinstated onto the 40-man roster.

It’ll likely be a brief appearance. Yamamoto last pitched in the majors on June 15. A rotator cuff strain knocked him out of action for more than two months. The 26-year-old joined Triple-A Oklahoma City on a rehab stint last week. He only pitched there twice, topping out at two innings. He labored through 53 pitches last night, and while his results weren’t good, he built up enough that the Dodgers don’t feel he needs another rehab appearance.

The Dodgers will presumably limit Yamamoto to somewhere in the 60-75 pitch range next week. L.A. has a decent 5.5-game cushion on the Padres in the NL West. They’re a game up on the Phillies for the top seed in the National League and three clear of the Brewers for a first-round bye. They’re still playing meaningful regular season games, but the primary focus is again on October.

Yamamoto should be able to log four turns through the rotation before the regular season concludes. That’d be ample time to build to a typical starter’s pitch count going into the postseason. If his stuff returns to pre-injury levels, he could be Roberts’ choice to start the first game of a playoff series. Yamamoto’s first MLB start was a nightmare, as he allowed four hits and five runs and didn’t make it to the second inning. The former NPB star has been as advertised since then. In the 13 starts since his debut, he sports a 2.34 earned run average with a 28.1% strikeout rate through 73 innings.

While it’s too soon to make definitive judgments about the Dodgers’ $325MM investment, Yamamoto was pitching like the top-of-the-rotation arm that L.A. expected. He’s part of an extremely high-variance rotation. Jack Flaherty and Gavin Stone are leading the group at the moment. Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw are on the IL. The Dodgers seem hopeful that both Glasnow and Kershaw will be back with a couple weeks to spare. If they get each of Yamamoto, Glasnow, Flaherty, Stone and Kershaw firing on all cylinders, they’ll go into the playoffs with an excellent rotation. That’s a big ask with the health uncertainty surrounding most of that group.

Kershaw went on the IL over the weekend with a bone spur in his left big toe. The Dodgers will turn to rookie righty Landon Knack in his place for Friday’s series opener with the Guardians, Roberts said (via Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register). Knack has been on and off the MLB roster as an injury replacement throughout the season. He has performed well when called upon, working to an even 3.00 ERA over 48 innings.

Dodgers Select Brent Honeywell

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The Dodgers have selected the contract of right-hander Brent Honeywell, according to a team announcement. Honeywell will take the active roster spot of right-hander Joe Kelly, who the club has placed on the 15-day Injured List due to right shoulder inflammation. A corresponding 40-man roster move was not needed to accommodate Honeywell, who will take the spot vacated by veteran outfielder Jason Heyward last week. The Dodgers have also officially announced the placement of veteran lefty Clayton Kershaw on the IL that was reported earlier this evening.

Honeywell, 29, returns to the big league Dodgers for a second stint after being designated for assignment by the club just two weeks ago. Once a consensus top-15 prospect in the sport with the Rays, Honeywell has faced a number of injury-related struggles throughout his career that caused him to miss three full seasons of action from 2018 to 2020 before being limited to just 103 1/3 innings of work across the 2021 and ’22 seasons.

Those long layoffs cost him several key years of development and robbed him of his ability to start, but he re-emerged as a big league reliever with the Padres last season. He posted decent middle relief numbers in San Diego before being squeezed off the roster and ending up with the White Sox, with whom he was shelled for seven runs in 5 2/3 innings down the stretch. That disastrous end to 2023 cost Honeywell his roster spot in Chicago, but he managed to find a minor league deal with the Pirates over the winter and made his way to the majors in July.

In 23 2/3 innings of work with the Pirates and Dodgers this season, Honeywell has posted strong results despite lackluster peripherals. His 2.28 ERA is nothing short of excellent, but the fact that he’s managing to prevent runs to that degree despite a microscopic 13.8% strikeout rate appears likely to be unsustainable, particularly if his whopping 89.6% strand rate regresses to a more typical figure. Even so, Honeywell figures to be as solid a bet as any to eat innings in a beleaguered Dodgers bullpen that was forced to use seven relievers after Kershaw departed in the second inning of last night’s game due to injury.

Honeywell will be taking the roster spot of one of those seven relievers, as Kelly is headed to the IL with a bout of shoulder inflammation. The 38-year-old hurler has been struggling mightily for the past month as he’s posted a 7.71 ERA with a paltry 18.2% strikeout rate and a hefty 13.6% walk rate. Last night’s outing was particularly difficult for the veteran as he surrendered two runs on three hits and two walks in 1 2/3 innings of work while striking out just one and hitting two batters.

Kelly’s brutal results over the past month have caused his season numbers to go from solid to well below average, as he entered August with a 3.93 ERA and a sterling 2.41 FIP. Those numbers now sit at 5.20 and 4.83, respectively. It’s unclear how long Kelly is expected to be out of action, but with just a month left in the regular season it’s possible the right-hander won’t be healthy enough to return before then. Kelly could hypothetically return at some point in the postseason even if he isn’t able to make it back before the end of the regular season, though given his deep struggles of late it’s unclear how strongly he would factor into L.A.’s postseason plans even if healthy.

Dodgers Place Clayton Kershaw On Injured List Due To Bone Spur In Toe

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5:37pm: Kershaw is headed to the injured list due to the issue, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register). Right-hander Ben Casparius has been recalled from the minors to take Kershaw’s roster spot, and Plunkett adds that left-hander Justin Wrobleski is set to be called up when rosters expand tomorrow to start tomorrow’s game. That could leave Wrobleski in position to take over Kershaw’s spot in the rotation relatively seamlessly.

7:55am: Clayton Kershaw threw just 27 pitches in Friday’s start before soreness in his left big toe forced the longtime Dodgers starter out of the game.  Kershaw was charged with three earned runs over one inning of work plus one batter faced in the second frame, as the left-hander left the mound after allowing a home run to Corbin Carroll.

Speaking with reporters (including Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times) after the game, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts explained that Kershaw’s toe discomfort was caused by a bone spur that has been lingering for multiple seasons.  “Some starts it feels fine and it’s not impeding. Today certainly it was,” Roberts said.

Given the longstanding nature of the injury, it isn’t necessarily clear whether or not Kershaw will need to be placed on the 15-day injured list.  Kershaw and Roberts both stated that some testing and evaluation will need to happen before a decision is made, and the Dodgers have some extra time to monitor the situation since Kershaw wasn’t scheduled to pitch until next Friday.  L.A. is expected to call up Justin Wrobleski for a spot start on Sunday, and the team has an off-day on Thursday, giving Kershaw more opportunity to rest.

That said, it obviously wouldn’t be surprising if the Dodgers opted to put Kershaw on the IL even as a precautionary measure.  Kershaw’s lengthy injury history is well-documented, and he didn’t make his 2024 debut until July 25 due to a lengthy recovery from shoulder surgery last November.  The southpaw has posted a 4.50 ERA and only an 18% strikeout rate over 30 innings, and while it isn’t a big sample size, Kershaw’s fastball velocity has dropped to 89.9 mph.

Losing Kershaw to the IL would represent yet another blow to the injury-ravaged Los Angeles rotation.  The Dodgers have still posted an 81-54 record despite having to account for multiple injured arms for the entirety of the season.  Roberts said the team is very likely to make some roster moves today to add fresh arms to a bullpen that had to cover eight innings on Friday, and some extra breathing space will come Sunday when teams expand their rosters from 26 to 28 players.

Adding just relief depth, however, might not provide much help to an L.A. team that still has plenty of questions about its starting staff as the postseason approaches.  Considering the Dodgers’ five-game lead in the NL West, it would take quite a collapse for the club to actually miss the playoffs, yet it certainly seems possible that Los Angeles could have another strong regular season undone by a lack of healthy arms in October.  In terms of reinforcements, Yoshinobu Yamamoto has started a Triple-A rehab assignment and could be back within a couple of weeks, though it isn’t yet clear when Tyler Glasnow could return from a bout of right elbow tendinitis.

Dodgers Release Jesse Hahn

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Right-hander Jesse Hahn has been released by Triple-A Oklahoma City, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had been pitching for that club after signing a minor league deal with the Dodgers in the offseason.

Hahn, now 35, had his 2021 season ended by a shoulder injury and then didn’t pitch in any official capacity in the following two years. With OKC here in 2024, he tossed 41 2/3 innings over 35 appearances, allowing 4.54 earned runs per nine. His 24.2% strikeout rate and 58% ground ball rate were both strong, but his 18.1% walk rate was abysmal. For reference, the major league average in 2024 is currently 8.2%.

It’s perhaps not surprising that Hahn has had some rust after such a long layoff, but it was also a trend prior to his absence. With the Royals from 2019 to 2021, he tossed 25 1/3 innings with a 26.1% strikeout rate but a 16.2% walk rate.

Hahn will now head to the open market and see if any club is interested in his services, presumably one that has a plan for reining in that control somehow. In 311 1/3 career innings from 2014 to 2021, he posted a 4.22 ERA with an 18% strikeout rate, 9% walk rate and 49.5% ground ball rate.

Latest On Dodgers’ Rotation

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Dodgers right-hander Tyler Glasnow landed on the 15-day injured list two weeks ago due to right elbow tendinitis. At the time, the righty said the ailment was “nothing super concerning to me,” per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. But it seems things have gotten murkier since then. Last weekend, manager Dave Roberts told reporters that Glasnow’s return would be a “slow process” but that his season wasn’t in jeopardy. Last night, when asked if Glasnow would return this year, Roberts was noncommittal.

“We’re hopeful,” he said, per Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times on X. “I think hopeful. I think that there’s still a lot of variables, to be certain. But I think everyone in the organization is hopeful.” The righty is planning to play catch today and through the weekend. Roberts was asked if Glasnow would still be ramped up if he continues to feel discomfort. “I’m not sure about that,” he said, per Harris. “I do know right now, when you’re starting up, you’re probably looking for pain-free. I think that’s probably the start. But it’s a fair question.”

It would appear to be a less than ideal development, given that the prognosis seems to be getting less optimistic. Glasnow’s health has been in the spotlight for most of his professional career. He dealt with elbow issues during his time with the Rays, including a Tommy John surgery, and never topped 120 innings in a season with that club. He’s up to 134 innings with the Dodgers this year, setting a new career high, but it hasn’t been totally smooth sailing. He missed two weeks around the All-Star break due to some lower back tightness and now his elbow is again the focus.

When on the mound, he’s been his usual self, giving up some home runs but also racking up lots of strikeouts. He’s allowed 3.49 earned runs per nine frames on the year, striking out 32.2% of batters faced while limiting walks to a 6.7% clip. His 48.6% ground ball rate is also strong but his 15 home runs allowed have put some runs on the board.

All together, Glasnow is one of the better pitchers on the club. Despite various injury issues around the roster, the Dodgers are currently the best team in baseball at 80-54. Still, fans of the club will likely be worrying about a repeat of last year, when the club’s dominant regular season was quickly undercut by a lack of rotation health for the playoffs.

The Dodgers went 100-62 last year and earned a bye through the Wild Card round but were quickly swept by the Diamondbacks in the Division Series. By that time, Julio Urías was on the restricted list due to domestic violence charges while each of Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin and Walker Buehler were all out due to significant surgeries. Clayton Kershaw wasn’t on the IL but was clearly battling shoulder problems that eventually required surgery in the offseason. Lance Lynn had been fighting home run problems all year, which followed him into the postseason.

This year, Glasnow’s status is up in the air. May is out for the year due to surgery again, this time due to a tear in his esophagus. River Ryan and Emmet Sheehan both required Tommy John surgeries.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto has been on the IL since June due to a rotator cuff strain, though he seems to be nearing a return. He started a rehab assignment on Wednesday night, tossing 31 pitches over two innings for Triple-A Oklahoma City. Assuming he doesn’t experience any kind of setback, he should make a few more rehab outings as he builds up that pitch count and could be back with the big league club before the regular season is out. Prior to hitting the IL, he had posted a 2.92 ERA in his first 14 major league starts.

Right now, the rotation consists of Kershaw, Buehler, Jack Flaherty, Bobby Miller and Gavin Stone. Kershaw has a solid 3.72 ERA in his return from shoulder surgery but with a 19% strikeout rate that’s below average and well shy of his previous form. The velocity on all his pitches is a bit below where he was last year, prior to going under the knife. Flaherty is having a strong season but has health questions of his own, as he dealt with some back problems with the Tigers which reportedly scuttled a deal to the Yankees before he was traded to the Dodgers. Both Miller and Buehler have struggled significantly this year.

It’s still possible that the Dodgers will be compiling a postseason rotation from a strong group including Stone, Flaherty, Yamamoto, Glasnow and Kershaw, though Stone is the only one without a notable health concern this year. If things go well with Yamamoto and Glasnow in the coming weeks, things will be looking pretty good, but it will be a situation worth monitoring in the coming weeks.

Circling back to Gonsolin, it’s possible he could return this year, but he wouldn’t be fully stretched out. Roberts said this week that the door is “a little open” for the righty to return as a reliever, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic on X.

He underwent Tommy John surgery almost exactly a year ago, on September 1 of 2023, so now is a natural time in the rehab process to start ramping up. He has been throwing live bullpens and could start a rehab assignment soon. The righty had a 3.19 career ERA, having started 71 of his 79 outings. Coming back as a reliever could be a boon to the pitching staff while also laying a small foundation for his 2025 season. He can be controlled via arbitration through 2026.

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