ST. LOUIS — The Los Angeles Dodgers placed Tyler Glasnow on the injured list with right elbow tendonitis on Friday, striking the latest catastrophic blow in a season where their roster has been ravaged by injuries.
It took until there were fewer than 10 minutes before the first pitch for the Dodgers to make the news official after an afternoon where something was amiss. Bobby Miller was scratched from his start with the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate on Thursday night and boarded a flight to St. Louis. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Friday afternoon that Miller’s presence on the taxi squad was related to some potential injury concerns in the Dodgers’ bullpen.
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“I don’t want to go too far into it,” Roberts said once questions about Glasnow came up with the manager suggesting Miller could be an option to start in the right-hander’s place on Saturday.
The Dodgers, it turned out, were waiting on scans on their budding ace. Those scans didn’t reveal any structural damage, Roberts said after his club’s 7-6 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.
A bigger (and taller) concern than Saturday’s starter now centers on Glasnow, the Dodgers’ splashy acquisition over the winter whom the organization inked to a nine-figure extension hoping he would shepherd the front of a postseason rotation. Now, his availability for such a run could be a massive question mark with a month and a half remaining, even as Roberts suggested that Glasnow could be back within a couple of weeks.
Glasnow went through his normal between-starts routine, including throwing a bullpen session without issue. The next day, however, he felt some discomfort during catch play. The 30-year-old lobbied the Dodgers to let him pitch anyway, Roberts said.
“He was fighting tooth and nail to make the start tomorrow, but … he’s a big part of finishing this season off the right way,” Roberts said. “If he were to make the start tomorrow, I would’ve been on pins and needles from the first throw and I don’t think that’s good for him, good for the team and again, we made the right decision.”
Glasnow was a first-time All-Star this season, supplying his typical per-inning dominance (3.49 ERA, 11.3 K/9) while setting new career marks for volume. A history of elbow trouble had limited Glasnow’s availability through parts of his first eight major league seasons; the Dodgers and Glasnow had said the time off stemmed from the same injury, which ultimately required Tommy John surgery in 2021.
To date, Glasnow’s 22 starts and 134 innings have marked new career highs. He, in many ways, has been a stabilizing force for a rotation that has crumbled around him. Gavin Stone, a rookie, remains the lone Dodgers starter to make each start without missing a turn this season.
The Dodgers recalled LHP Justin Wrobleski and placed RHP Tyler Glasnow on the injured list with right elbow tendinitis.
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 17, 2024
Three different Dodgers pitchers with starting experience — Emmet Sheehan, Kyle Hurt and River Ryan — have undergone season-ending Tommy John surgery this season. Pitching prospect Nick Frasso’s offseason started with labrum surgery that ended his 2024, as well. Tony Gonsolin was already ruled out for the season after his elbow surgery last year, and Dustin May’s attempted return from elbow surgery ended when he required emergency surgery for a torn esophagus.
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Those are just over half of the 11 different starting pitchers to hit the injured list this season as the Dodgers have been hit by the injury bug as much as any team in the sport.
“We’re trying to figure out, is there an acute thing, is there an overarching issue to get at?” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said this week of the rash of injuries. “Right now, I wish I had more answers, but we continue to dig. I think we’re seeing it across the industry, and we feel it more acutely when it happens to us, but I don’t think that this is all that unique.
“Are there any external studies from Major League Baseball? Should we do one? How do we best get at it, because it’s not a simple problem to solve, right? There are so many factors … like, what if we acquire somebody who gets hurt? What happened before then? Were they in our system the whole time? We just don’t know.”
Glasnow had previously hit the injured list this year during the All-Star break due to back tightness. Walker Buehler’s season was delayed for workload reasons, then he hit the injured list again with hip inflammation (and has hardly looked like himself for any extended stretch). Clayton Kershaw is still coming off the first major surgery of his career.
Miller, ascendant as a rookie last year, has also missed time with a shoulder issue. He’s struggled since, showing diminished velocity and command that led to him going down to the minors a month ago. His results since — allowing eight runs and walking 11 batters in 13 innings — have not inspired much confidence. But the Dodgers are limited with their options, having already called up rookies Landon Knack and Justin Wrobleski over the past week to help soak up innings.
Another prominent option took a step forward in his recovery Friday afternoon, as Yoshinobu Yamamoto joined the club at Busch Stadium and faced hitters for the first time since June, when he was placed on the IL with a strained rotator cuff. That also included some confusion of its own; the outing lasted 17 pitches and five hitters. Roberts first said Yamamoto didn’t feel comfortable with the mound, then said the appearance was that length due to the muggy heat in St. Louis; Yamamoto said it was just a miscommunication.
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Yamamoto said “the feeling is good” in his right shoulder, according to interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda.
“My goal is still getting back to where I was throwing in actual games,” Yamamoto said. “But I think it’s good being able to throw a live BP.”
A September return still appears to be a best-case scenario. Yamamoto said he likely will require at least two more live batting practice sessions against hitters before he and the club start discussing a minor-league rehab assignment.
Who is left standing in the rotation whenever he returns remains a mystery.
(Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA Today)
Fabian Ardaya is a staff writer covering the Los Angeles Dodgers for The Athletic. He previously spent three seasons covering the crosstown Los Angeles Angels for The Athletic. He graduated from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in May 2017 after growing up in a Phoenix-area suburb. Follow Fabian on Twitter @FabianArdaya
