The pitching injuries that threatened to nip the Dodgers’ 2024 season in the bud before it could blossom into a championship are back. Rather than a fluke, a rotating cast of starters, bullpen games, and general uncertainty seems to be a trend in Los Angeles.
It’s a trend that has never reached this level so soon in the history of Major League Baseball.
According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, no team has has used 11 starting pitchers this early in a season before the Dodgers:
“Remember when everyone thought the Los Angeles Dodgers had too much pitching?” Nightengale wrote in his Sunday column. “Well, they made history this past week when they became the first team in history to use 11 different starting pitchers before May, thanks to 13 pitchers on the IL. No pitching staff has produced fewer innings by their starters and no bullpen has thrown more innings.”
To be fair, some of this was by design.
Tony Gonsolin was nearly ready to pitch by the end of the 2024 season, but the Dodgers opted to delay the start of his 2025 season as he attempted to return from Tommy John surgery. Gonsolin made four minor league rehab starts with Triple-A Oklahoma City before making his 2025 debut.
The injuries to Clayton Kershaw, Emmet Sheehan, Kyle Hurt, River Ryan and Gavin Stone were all known quantities when spring training began. Of the five, only Kershaw is close to a return.
Meanwhile, Shohei Ohtani’s return to pitching remains a question of “when,” not “if,” — but a question nonetheless. Ohtani threw a bullpen session Saturday in Atlanta as he inches closer to a return.
Just because it was expected doesn’t mean it’s been easy to watch.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto is 4-2 with a 0.90 ERA in seven starts. Only three other Dodger pitchers (Roki Sasaki, Dustin May and Tyler Glasnow) have made at least five starts this season; none has an ERA lower than Sasaki’s 3.86.
Bobby Miller (three innings, six earned runs allowed) and Justin Wrobleski (five innings, eight earned runs allowed) failed to make the most of their chances. Landon Knack (two starts, 7.27 ERA in 8.2 innings) was similarly unimpressive in his April cameo.
Meanwhile, Jack Dreyer opened for Ben Casparius for the Dodgers in Miami on Monday, his second “start” of the season. He pitched 1.1 perfect innings.
It’s possible the group of 11 starters the Dodgers have used this season will only grow by two, once Kershaw and Ohtani are cleared to pitch. By year’s end, that would not look out of place with the 2024 team that used 17 starters over 162 games.
History, however, suggests the revolving door will continue to revolve.