Brock Stewart has been on the injured list since May 9, but he now appears to be closing in on his return to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Stewart was assigned to the Single-A Ontario Towers Buzzers on Friday to begin a rehab assignment. Rehabbing pitchers are allowed to be on assignment for up to 30 days.
Stewart has been dealing with a bone spur in his left foot that forced him back on the 15-day IL just three days after he was activated. Before that, Stewart began the season recovering from last year’s right shoulder surgery.
The expectation was that Stewart would miss around three weeks due to the bone spur. The main treatment was rest, but his foot took longer to respond than they anticipated.
Prior to Stewart landing back on the IL, he pitched two scoreless innings, allowing no hits and striking out one across two games. He also pitched in only four games for the team last season after getting acquired from the Minnesota Twins at the trade deadline.
Despite his lengthy injury history, Stewart has been a highly effective reliever while on the mound. Over the last two seasons, he’s been limited to just 39.2 innings, but he posted a 2.50 ERA while striking out 10.66 hitters per nine.
He first converted to a full-time relief role in 2023, and since then, he’s pitched 83 innings across 89 games, posting a 2.39 ERA, 2.94 FIP, and 2.83 expected ERA while striking out 11.49 hitters per nine and walking 3.58 per nine.
Unfortunately for Stewart, he’s averaged just 27 innings per season from 2023 to 2025 due to injury issues.
Brock Stewart begins rehab assignment
Stewart appeared in a game for the Tower Buzzers on Friday night, throwing one inning as the second pitcher to enter for the team.
The right-hander took over in the fourth inning and allowed one run on two hits with two strikeouts and no walks.
Stewart allowed a leadoff double to the first hitter he faced and bounced back to strike out the second. He then gave up another double that scored a run.
After that, Stewart struck out the next hitter and then recorded a groundout to end his frame.
During his previous rehab assignment that started on April 14, Stewart made eight appearances over three weeks.
The 34-year-old logged 6.1 scoreless innings and struck out 13 batters over eight appearances, which included throwing on back-to-back days from April 29-30, something the Dodgers view as an important checkpoint for a reliever looking to return.
The timeline for Stewart this time could be a little shorter, given that he isn’t rehabbing a shoulder or arm injury. But it should still take some time, given he’s missed about a month.
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