Just when the Dodgers They thought their pitching staff was getting healthier when they announced another significant injury on Friday.
Right-handed rookie Gavin’s Stone He was placed on the injured list with shoulder inflammation, the team said, leaving the 25-year-old’s status at the end of the season uncertain amid a breakout campaign.
Landon Knack and Justin Wrobleski were recalled from Triple-A (reliever Michael Peterson was also optioned in a corresponding move).
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Stone had been the only member of the Dodgers’ Opening Day rotation not on the injured list this year, becoming the fifth Dodgers pitcher in the past four years to make 25 starts in a season.
But in Stone’s 25th start last weekend in Arizona, he threw just 84 pitches over five innings before manager Dave Roberts decided he had run out of steam and pulled him from the game.
While Stone said that day that he felt like he could have thrown more than 100 pitches, his condition seemingly took a turn this week, making him the latest question mark in the Dodgers’ rotation — along with fellow current IL members Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw — with three weeks remaining in the regular season.
After major deadline acquisition Jack Flaherty, Stone seemed like the safest candidate to be in the Dodgers’ potential postseason rotation.
In a reversal from his dismal debut performance in 2023, Stone blossomed this year with a new mix of pitches, going 11-5 with a 3.53 ERA.
That success, however, came with a heavy workload. Stone’s 140 innings this year had already surpassed the career-high he set last year of 131 between the majors and Triple-A.
Without Stone, Walker Buehler will likely become a more important piece of the Dodgers’ pitching plans after overcoming his early-season struggles in his last two outings.
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Stone’s injury shouldn’t hurt the team’s NL West chances too much, as the Dodgers enter Friday with a five-game lead over the San Diego Padres.
But he was destined to play a crucial role in the playoffs.
Instead, it’s another uncertainty as the club’s pitching staff continues its injury-plagued limp into October.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.