The Los Angeles Dodgers are dealing with notable injuries within their starting rotation for the third year in a row, as they have already needed to test the limits of their organizational depth early into the 2025 season.
The issue hasn’t been putting together a talented group of starters. Far from it, in fact. Instead, the challenge has been having enough available arms at any given point in the season.
The Dodgers can’t seem to catch a break with the health of their starting rotation since 2023, though some of it is their own doing.
Blake Snell has not pitched in a game since April 2 and is expected to miss significantly more time moving forward. The addition of Tyler Glasnow’s right shoulder injury to the equation puts further strain on the Dodgers’ pitching staff as a whole.
The pair were among the Dodgers’ most expensive additions to the starting rotation in the past two offseasons, but they have only thrown a combined 27 innings this year.
Although Snell has somewhat of an injury history, he averaged 26 starts from 2021-2024.
However, the medical red flags for Glasnow are much more prevalent and established over his career.
The Dodgers were given the benefit of the doubt when they traded for and then signed Glasnow to a large extension, with the thought being that they would find a way to help him remain healthy.
After the disappointment of only pitching 20 games last season and being inactive for the entirety of the Dodgers’ World Series run, Glasnow made a real effort to improve his durability. That included a change to how he approached his offseason program and mechanical adjustments on the mound.
The results have not been what he hoped for so far in 2025. Glasnow exited his last two starts early due to injury, though it was the latest outing where his right shoulder was specifically the issue. Glasnow explained the shoulder discomfort “comes and goes” and could be traced back to fighting his new mechanics, but nothing is conclusive.
Regardless of what is causing the issue, the Dodgers weren’t taking any chances of the situation getting worse and placed Glasnow on the 15-day injured list.
“My position is, when you have somebody that is complaining about things — certainly a pitcher — you’re very cautious to prevent against any type of injury. So the things that I hear, the things that I see, it dictates my decision. In Spring Training he felt good with the new delivery, until he didn’t. So I can’t speak to that,” manager Dave Roberts said.
A silver lining is the Dodgers do not believe there is structural damage to Glasnow’s shoulder, but team remains at a loss for identifying the root of the issue.
“There’s a mechanics piece of it, there’s uncomfortable and not feeling right, so I think we’re all just trying, as Tyler said, it’s very frustrating and we’re trying to get to the bottom of it,” Roberts said.
Mark Prior hints at Tyler Glasnow timeline
Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior echoed Roberts’ frustration with not being able to help Glasnow identify what is ailing him. The whole situation is especially exasperating for all parties involved because of how well Glasnow has looked during his prep work.
“And it’s unfortunate because in a lot of his side sessions and a lot of his practice sessions, we could probably make the argument that his stuff is at or even better than it was last year at certain points,” Prior said.
“Again, those are practice sessions versus game sessions, so it doesn’t really mean anything, but there’s nothing that has given us any reason to think that he wasn’t going to go out there and perform at a high level. So we’re as confused and disappointed for him more than anything.
“He’s going through the steps to try to figure out exactly what’s going on in the acute injury process. He’s going to take a few days off, and then we’ll start kind of getting back into some plyos and some light throwing, and then we’ll see where we’re at in 10 to 14 days.”
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