LOS ANGELES — The most stable figure left in the Los Angeles Dodgers rotation is currently off the board, as the Dodgers placed rookie Gavin Stone — their lone starting pitcher not to miss a turn through the rotation this season — on the injured list with right shoulder inflammation.
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said Stone will be shut down from throwing for at least 10 days. How Stone feels after that will determine how likely it is he pitches again for the Dodgers this year.
“I think either going to work or it’s not,” Friedman said. “And I can sit here and say, I’m really optimistic, we just don’t know.”
Stone, 25, has gone 11-5 with a 3.53 ERA in 25 starts this season, eclipsing a professional career-high of 140 1/3 innings. The organization has been mindful of Stone’s workload, and the right-hander hasn’t thrown more than 90 pitches in a start in over a month.
Yet, he’s the latest in a line of Dodgers starters to go down with injury in an increasingly uncertain picture for their October rotation, with a slim margin for a return. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Stone was “out of gas” after completing five innings on 84 pitches Saturday against the Arizona Diamondbacks; the next day, Stone reported discomfort in his shoulder and underwent testing.
The results showed no significant structural damage — “It wasn’t something that it was like, oh, we need to have surgery,” Friedman said. “It was, hey, let’s let everything calm down.”
It’s hardly an encouraging sign for a group that already has significant question marks to merely survive the rest of the regular season, let alone three (or four) playoff rounds in October.
“We’re gonna have enough pitching,” Roberts said Friday. “The names might be a little bit different. I don’t think anyone knows who and who won’t be a part of it.”
Tyler Glasnow played catch out to 120 feet again on Friday and will throw his first bullpen Saturday as he works his way back from elbow tendonitis. While Glasnow said last week he is “confident” he will be back before the postseason, the calendar puts a squeeze on any injury at this point.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto is expected to return from the injured list on Tuesday against the Chicago Cubs for his first start since June. But Yamamoto, recovering from a strained rotator cuff, has not thrown more than two innings in any of his rehab outings.
Then there’s Clayton Kershaw, who has an uncertain timetable as he deals with a painful bone spur in his left big toe. Kershaw has continued playing catch, and Freidman said he doesn’t anticipate Kershaw needing offseason surgery to address an issue that Roberts said has plagued him for years.
“Just figuring out how to provide enough relief to push off, because using his lower half is really important,” Friedman said. “We need to figure out for him to throw 80-90 pitches in a comfortable enough way.”
That, along with season-ending injuries to Emmet Sheehan, River Ryan and Dustin May, has left uncertainty behind a group that on paper is led by deadline acquisition Jack Flaherty. Filling out the rest of their projected postseason rotation has been a challenge.
“I think this is arguably the deepest, most balanced lineup we’ve ever had,” Friedman said. “I think our pen is as deep and talented as I can remember. And right now we’ve got to figure out how to line up our starters, and as guys are coming back, making sure that they get enough workload under their belt to hit October in stride.”
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(Photo: Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)
