Hyun-Jin Ryu has been injury-plagued throughout the course of his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and it didn’t take long for him to wind up on the injured list again in 2019.
In just his third start of the season last week against the St. Louis Cardinals, Ryu was forced to leave the game in the second inning due to a left groin strain.
Ryu missed 91 games last season due to a groin injury, and while this one is definitely a concern, he said this groin injury is nowhere near as bad as the one he was forced to deal with in 2018. One week after he went down with the injury, Ryu was already back on a mound as he threw his first bullpen session on Monday at Dodger Stadium.
It appears he came out of that well as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Ryu is expected to return to the rotation within the week and won’t require a rehab start, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“We’re going to slot him in the rotation in the next week. I don’t know when,” said Roberts. “He came out of his bullpen feeling very good. What that means right now, I’m unclear. But no rehab start.”
Julio Urias is scheduled to start Thursday against the Milwaukee Brewers and then is expected to be moved to the bullpen when Ryu returns. Ryu is eligible to be activated off the 10-day injured list on Friday.
Ryu has gotten off to a good start to this season, going 2-0 with a 3.07 ERA, 4.10 FIP and 0.89 WHIP with 14 strikeouts and just one walk in 14.2 innings in his first three outings.
Barring any other injuries, the Dodgers are close to getting their entire starting rotation back healthy with Rich Hill also due back from the injured list sometime in the near future.
