The Los Angeles Dodgers were hopeful to have Blake Treinen to start the season after he missed two seasons due to shoulder surgery.
Treinen was pitching in Spring Training and seemed on track to make the Opening Day roster, but he ended up being struck by a comebacker on a line drive late in the Cactus League schedule.
It was initially believed Treinen just suffered a bruise, so he traveled to South Korea with the team, where the expectation was he would be on the roster for the Seoul Series.
However, he did not progress as anticipated and was left off the roster and placed on the 15-day injured list. When the team returned home, an MRI revealed two fractured ribs.
Treinen has been resting the injury, and now that he’s feeling better, he’s at the point where the focus becomes on getting back into game action, he told David Vassegh on AM570 L.A. Sports Radio:
“I think the biggest thing is letting it calm down and then just check boxes. Throw a couple bullpens, get a couple of live bullpens where I’m throwing against some of our guys. Check those boxes off and then move on to an affiliate and get into game mode and see where we’re at after that. I still have a few more things to do before we go down that road, but the process is moving along really smoothly right now.”
Treinen collected two strikeouts over 3.2 scoreless innings across four Cactus League appearances before suffering his injury.
Since the start of the 2022 season, Treinen has thrown just five innings at the Major League level after being a fixture in the bullpen from 2021-22.
Over his career, he’s pitched to a 2.86 ERA, 3.28 FIP and 1.23 WHIP across 503 innings with a 24.3% strikeout rate and 9.3% walk rate.
How Blake Treinen can help Dodgers bullpen
If Treinen is able to return to form, he would give the Dodgers another high-leverage option in a bullpen that has struggled outside of Evan Phillips and Daniel Hudson.
While it’s not fair to expect him to return to 2021 levels when he posted a 1.99 ERA, Treinen can still be an effective reliever, as long as he stays healthy.
The Dodgers are also without Brusdar Graterol, and with those two right-handers out they’ve at times lacked a bridge to the ninth inning.
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