The starting pitching carousel that fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers are highly familiar with is beginning to spin quite rapidly. Not counting the occasional bullpen game by a reliever, the Dodgers have already used seven legit starting pitchers so far this season, eight if you count the two starts by Michael Grove earlier in the year.
The funny thing is that righty Tyler Glasnow, who fans thought might be the most vulnerable to an injury coming into the season, leads the club with 16 starts.
The thing about Glasnow is that he still hasn’t pitched a complete season since he was converted from a swing man to a full-time starter back in 2018. Last year, his 21 starts and 120 innings pitched were the most of his eight-year big league career. The native of Newhall, California, missed nearly all of 2022 after having UCL surgery and missed another two months in 2023 with an oblique strain.
Regardless, with both Walker Buehler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the injured list, the current rotation stacks up with Glasnow, veteran lefty James Paxton and a trio of young right-handers in Bobby Miller, Gavin Stone and Landon Knack.
Ironically, while Glasnow has surely been the most consistent, Stone and Knack might be the most impressive so far this year.
In his last outing on Friday, Knack threw five scoreless innings, allowing two hits and two walks while striking out two batters. So far this year, Knack has made five starts, posting a very impressive 2.10 ERA and a 0.94 WHIP with 18 punchouts and eight walks over 25-1/3 innings.
As some fans like to do this time of year, a few have included Knack as a hypothetical trade piece during the upcoming deadline, but it could be an unwise decision to deal the 26-year-old Tennessee native, especially in light of all the injuries the Los Angeles starting pitching staff typically faces late in the season.
There was plenty of excitement surrounding Clayton Kershaw’s rehab start on Wednesday, but the veteran lefty is dealing with some residual soreness, which may or may not impact the length of his recovery. Kershaw’s next start was slated for Tuesday with Triple-A Oklahoma City against Reno, but it still remains unclear whether that will happen.
Righty Dustin May had a promising bullpen session last week with pitches clocking in above 90 MPH. At this stage of the game, though, he could be farther away from a return than Kershaw. May is working his way back from a UCL surgery last July.
In the meantime, the starting pitching carousel could stay intact with Glasnow, Paxton, Miller, Stone and Knack, at least for as long as Buehler and Yamamoto remain on the injured list.
Whether the Dodgers will decide to add another starter before the deadline remains to be seen.