The Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitching staff has been plagued by injuries in recent weeks, having lost four-fifths of their Opening Day starting rotation in Rich Hill, Clayton Kershaw, Kenta Maeda and Hyun-Jin Ryu for various amounts of time.
Maeda, in particular, has been sidelined since the end of May with a hip strain. The injury forced him to be removed from his an outing against the Philadelphia Phillies after logging only 1.2 innings pitched in the contest.
Still, it’s believed that Maeda could potentially be nearing a return off the disabled list. He has already resumed baseball-related activities and took the next step in his recovery process by throwing a lengthy bullpen session on Friday.
Maeda later received a vote of confidence from Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who revealed that the right-hander may make his next start in a week’s time, per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“Kenta’s ‘pen today, very aggressive, higher intensity, threw the ball well,” said Roberts. “Probably close to 40 pitches. Executed all of his pitches. So to see him available to make a start for us here sometime next week seems more possible, which is encouraging for all of us.”
Prior to suffering a hip strain, Maeda was in the midst of a terrific stretch that spanned two starts against the Miami Marlins and Colorado Rockies. In those games, he tossed 14.2 shutout innings while accumulating 20 strikeouts to only four walks.
Maeda’s impending return to the rotation will stabilize a depleted corps that recently lost pitching prospect Dennis Santana due to a right rotator cuff strain. Moreover, Walker Buehler was removed from Friday’s start against the Atlanta Braves after experiencing rib soreness, though the severity of the injury isn’t yet known.
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