The Los Angeles Dodgers will be without another pitcher in 2025.
Per The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya, Michael Grove was seen in a sling Sunday morning after undergoing a shoulder surgery.
He will be out for the entire 2025 season.
The road to the 2024 World Series was filled with injuries to various Dodgers’ arms, but losing a player like Grove days before Opening Day will sting.
Last season was one of Grove’s most productive in a Dodgers uniform. He lowered his ERA to 5.12 in his 39 appearances as he was transitioned almost fully to a bullpen role.
Adding 54 strikeouts to only 16 walks and a 1.216 WHIP, his 51 innings pitched were crucial to the title run.
A “shoulder thing,” as manager Dave Roberts put it, kept Grove out of October baseball after logging just .1 innings in the NLDS.
The 28-year-old Grove will work to get back stronger from his surgery and continue his productive play next season.
With the revamped bullpen that was born in the Dodgers’ dominant offseason, Grove was expected to take a larger role on the pitching roster with his experience and Dodgers tenure. He will now likely open up another spot to a non-roster invite or fringe pitcher looking to make the team.
Guys like Luis Garcia, Giovanny Gallegos, and although not an NRI, Ben Casparius, will be competing for the one of three open spots in the bulllpen. Michael Kopech and Evan Phillips will not miss the season like Grove, but won’t be ready for Opening Day.
With the seven cuts just made, reassigning three southpaws and four right-handers to minor league camp, things are getting increasingly clear of who will make it to the roster.
Losing Grove is a significant blow for not just the bullpen but for Dodgers fans everywhere. As he works to get back to the mound next season, hopefully, different arms step up in his place and continue the run to a back-to-back title.
Everyone who likes baseball has been paying attention to Shohei Ohtani’s greatness since his debut in MLB in 2018. That season, he earned the Rookie of the Year award and demonstrated to everyone what he was capable of, but it is incredible to me how he can make it so far without knowing how to slide correctly.
During the second game of the last World Series between the Dodgers and the Yankees, Shohei tried to steal second base, but when he got into it, he injured his shoulder. Since the beginning of Spring Training, the Dodgers have shared videos of the Japanese practicing his slide and the latest one impressed everyone with an epic ending pose.
Ohtani had surgery in his non-throwing shoulder after the first medical reports from the Dodgers’ doctors were described as a subluxation or a partial dislocation. This was weeks after the triumph of the Los Angeles team, the procedure was performed by the distinguished Dr. Neal ElAttrache after a diagnosis of a labrum tear.
The 2025 MLB season will start with the Tokyo Series between the Dodgers and the Cubs on March 18 & 19. This is just proof of Shohei’s impact on the league, on the team, on the draft, and on everything! He won’t be ready to pitch for those days, but their friends and compatriots; Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki will take the mound.
The Tokyo Series was first played on the iconic 2000 year between the Mets and the Cubs, they played a two-game series where they split wins. Four years later the Yankees and the Devil Rays (actually Rays) starred in the Tokyo Series, where they also split games. In 2008, the Athletics and the Red Sox were the third Japanese series in history; also a split of W’s.
In 2012, the Athletics repeated against the Mariners in another series with a win per team. The MLB in Japan was just a memory until 2019, one year after Shoehi arrived in the league. The return of the Tokyo Series involucrated the same 2012 franchises; the Mariners of Ichiro Suzuki against the Athletics. This meant the last appearance of the great Suzuki, a World Series champion and a player who played for 19 seasons. He retired afterwards this series.
Both teams earned a win in Tokyo (once again) and the second game was over after 12 innings, the first time a series in Japan was extended. The history continues this 2025 season, maybe not with Shohei being the star at the mound but with a huge Japanese culture around; not only the pitchers from the Dodgers but Shota Imanaga from the Cubs is reported to throw in the first game of the series.
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