The Dodgers are going to select right-hander Emmet Sheehan to their roster, reports Juan Toribio of MLB.com. He will start tonight’s game, making his major league debut. The club has an opening on their 40-man roster from designating Adam Kolarek for assignment earlier this week but will need a corresponding move to get Sheehan onto the active roster.
Sheehan, 23, was selected by the Dodgers in the sixth round of the 2021 draft and made a brief professional debut at the lower levels of their farm system in the subsequent months. Last year, he spent most of it at High-A and was able to reach Double-A by the end of the year. He tossed 68 innings on the year with a 2.91 ERA, striking out an excellent 38% of opponents though with an 11.1% walk rate that was on the high side. He then went to the Arizona Fall League and added another 20 1/3 frames with a 3.54 ERA in six starts.
Coming into this season, he was generally considered to be just outside the club’s top tier of prospects. Many outlets had roughly five to eight Dodgers on their top 100 lists, with Sheehan just a bit behind that group. Baseball America ranked him #13 in the system, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs at #17 and Keith Law of The Athletic at #14.
Here in 2023, Sheehan has returned to Double-A and has been getting great results. He has an ERA of 1.86 in 53 1/3 innings so far, with a massive strikeout rate of 41.7%. His 10.9% walk rate is still a bit on the high side and he won’t be able to maintain a .211 batting average on balls in play or 91.1% strand rate, but his numbers would surely be impressive even with a bit of regression.
The Dodgers are now going to have Sheehan leapfrog over Triple-A and into the majors. That’s partially a testament to his impressive work but it’s also related to some challenges they have faced with the big league staff. Walker Buehler had Tommy John surgery last year and won’t be an option until late in the season, even in a best-case scenario. Dustin May was able to make nine starts this year but departed the last of those and was diagnosed with a flexor pronator strain. He’s on the 60-day injured list and ineligible to return until mid-July. Julio Urías has been on the IL since mid-May due to a hamstring strain and was supposed to come back this week but suffered a setback and will likely require a rehab assignment now. Noah Syndergaard went on the shelf just over a week ago due to a blister.
Amid all of those injuries to their established starters, the club has been forced to turn to their prospect depth. Ryan Pepiot was going to open the season in the rotation but he himself got injured at the end of Spring Training as he strained his oblique and isn’t expected back until the All-Star break. Michael Grove and Bobby Miller have been pushed into the rotation next to incumbents Clayton Kershaw and Tony Gonsolin. Miller’s ERA is a miniscule 0.78 but Grove’s is way up at 8.10.
Despite all those challenges, the Dodgers are managing to stay afloat. Their 39-30 record places them second in the National League West and they are currently holding the top Wild Card spot in the league. Whether this is just a spot start for Sheehan or he sticks around for longer will likely be determined by a few different factors. His own performance will surely be one of them, as will the continued results of Grove and Miller, along with the health situations of the guys on the injured list.