The Los Angeles Dodgers were dealt unfortunate and frustrating news, with word that Hyun-Jin Ryu experienced soreness in his throwing shoulder after a rehab start with Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Ryu threw 55 pitches over four scoreless innings in the outing, then tossed an additional 10 pitches on the side; it was his most extensive work to date. Ryu has thrown a combined nine innings over three rehab starts, two of which came with High-A Rancho Cucamonga.
The shoulder soreness forced the southpaw to miss his scheduled start on Monday as his rehab assignment has been put on hold. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said last week he expected Ryu to make two more starts with Oklahoma City.
According to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com, Roberts said Ryu will continue throwing and overcoming the latest setback involves pain threshold:
“He’s going to keep tossing, but the intensity … scar tissue, we’re hoping it’s something like that,” said Roberts. “There’s going to be some discomfort, but it’s kind of up to the individual player and how much each player can tolerate. We’ll re-evaluate depending on how he feels.”
In many ways Ryu and Brandon McCarthy are viewed as saviors for the Dodgers rotation, but until both pitchers recover from respective surgery, how effective either will be remains unknown. That holds particularly true for Ryu, who has suffered multiple setbacks since last May’s operation.
He was initially expected to recover in time for Spring Training, but his return was delayed to the regular season. That target date got pushed into May and it’s continued to go by the wayside.
