The Los Angeles Dodgers have been without arguably their best relief pitcher all season as Blake Treinen was placed on the 10-day injured list on April 22 with right shoulder discomfort. He was then transferred to the 60-day IL on May 17.
Treinen has recently been throwing bullpen sessions and building his arm strength back up, which brought some hope he could begin facing hitters soon despite not having a set schedule.
However, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Treinen is going to need extra time before advancing to that stage of the rehab process.
“I think with Blake, it’s going to be a couple of weeks before he gets to face hitters,” Roberts said. “We’re still a ways from that point.”
While there was some hope Treinen could return in the middle of August, the decision to delay that timeline was more of a move made out of caution rather than something to worry about. Treinen has also continued throwing bullpen sessions, which further indicates their approach is a cautious one.
“There’s no setback, but I think it’s more of in the vein of making sure we just take our time,” Roberts said. “I still think maybe more late August kind of situation. But again, if he keeps passing these markers, then it could be sooner.”
The Dodgers would certainly like for Treinen to return as soon as possible, but with an 11.5-game lead in the National League West standings and a 98% chance to win the division, according to FanGraphs, they have no need to rush the veteran right-hander back and can instead make sure he returns fully healthy for October.
“I think that’s part of it,” Roberts said. “You don’t want to have the standings drive that, but I think that if you do have a little bit of margin, to kind of have that flexibility to be a little bit more prudent, it only makes sense.”
Treinen confident in right shoulder
While Treinen has not provided specifics of his shoulder injury, he previously alluded to not being able to pitch or throw with “conviction,” which prompted the IL stint. Now months removed from that point, the veteran deemed his shoulder healthy.
“You’ve got to let it heal and let it build back up like Spring Training to see if there’s integrity,” Treinen said. “I went through some of that and you can see it with four of my five bullpens have been really, really good. I think it’s healed.
“It’s just a matter of building strength so I don’t get re-injured.”
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