MIAMI — The Dodgers had to be relieved when Evan Phillips returned from a ligament tear in his rotator cuff and gave them seven scoreless appearances in the first two weeks after he was activated.
Then his arm started hurting.
Phillips went on the injured list on Wednesday with forearm discomfort, joining Blake Treinen and Michael Kopech on the sidelines from the back end of their ideal bullpen.
“I thought it was just reacclimating to the workload,” Phillips said. “I always felt good when I pitched, so that’s kind of where my disappointment comes in. I do feel like I can still contribute, but I think what it comes down to is we don’t want to mess around with something in early May.”
The soreness has “kind of bounced around a little bit,” Phillips said, affecting him “in my lower arm, or bicep, tricep, forearm.” He was getting different treatments but wasn’t recovering well from his outings.
“Could he have pitched today? Absolutely,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “No one knows how he would feel responding going forward. So I think for us, it just made the most sense to IL him. Our expectation is on that 16th day, he’ll be back active. It’s just more of a precaution.”
Phillips takes solace in the fact that he has had no recurrence of pain from last fall’s rotator cuff injury as he built up in a minor-league rehab assignment and rejoined the Dodgers’ bullpen in mid-April.
“The one bright side is my shoulder feels great,” he said. “It could be stemming from some rebuilt tissue in there that may be snug or built up a little bit differently now that I’m healthy in that regard. So it’s probably related in some ways, but at least I feel great in that area. I’m happy with that.”
Phillips said he isn’t sure how things will proceed from here. He could return to Los Angeles for an MRI or further examination.
“We’ll get to Arizona and kind of get our ducks in a row and create a plan, whether that’s getting back to L.A. and getting something figured out or see how things develop overnight,” he said. “I’m not happy to be in this position. I think we’ve made some great strides in my general recovery over the past couple of days. So hopefully we just keep building on that.”
COMING SOON
Left-hander Clayton Kershaw threw six no-hit innings against a team from the Cincinnati Reds’ complex in Arizona on Tuesday.
“Pretty impressive,” Roberts said. “He went back out to the ’pen to throw another dozen pitches, to get up to, call it 80. He was really good.”
Kershaw is scheduled to make his final rehab start with Triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday. That puts the three-time Cy Young Award winner on track to come off the IL and join the Dodgers’ starting rotation the following weekend.
START THROWING
Left-hander Blake Snell was supposed to start his throwing program during the Dodgers’ series in Miami, but he was “under the weather.” He was back in the clubhouse on Wednesday and is now scheduled to start playing catch on Friday in Arizona.
Right-hander Tyler Glasnow will not be with the team in Arizona but he is also expected to start throwing this weekend.
Snell has been out since April 2 with a sore shoulder. Glasnow has been out since April 27 with shoulder inflammation.
UP NEXT
Dodgers (RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 4-2, 0.90 ERA) at Diamondbacks (RHP Brandon Pfaadt, 5-2, 3.79 ERA), Thursday, 6:40 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM