Dodgers right-hander Evan Phillips missed the World Series last year due to shoulder troubles, but the full scope of his injury was never made clear until camp opened this week. Phillips tells the Dodgers beat that he was diagnosed with a small tear of a tendon in his rotator cuff during the 2024 postseason (link via Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register). The tear was not significant enough for doctors to recommend surgery, but Phillips received a cortisone injection and was shelved while his teammates closed out the postseason with a World Series win over the Yankees.
Even with the lack of surgery, Phillips could be IL-bound to begin the season, Plunkett writes. A follow-up MRI in December revealed significant healing but still some damage. Phillips has been limited in his offseason throwing program but said yesterday that he hopes to be on a mound “soon.”
The 30-year-old Phillips is a key member of the Dodgers’ late-inning relief corps when healthy. He picked up 18 saves in 2024 and another 24 saves the year prior. During his three full seasons as a Dodger, the former Braves, Orioles and Rays castoff has posted a 2.21 ERA with a big 29.6% strikeout rate against a tidy 6.5% walk rate. Phillips has saved 44 games overall and also been credited with 34 holds. He’s earning $6.1MM this year in his penultimate season of club control before reaching free agency in the 2026-27 offseason.
There’s a similarly murky update on fellow late-inning righty Michael Kopech. The Dodgers quickly moved to downplay a report that their deadline bullpen acquisition from last summer would miss a month to begin the season. GM Brandon Gomes at the time said that the team hadn’t seen “anything of concern yet” with regard to Kopech’s reportedly ailing forearm. To be fair to the team, there’s still no firm indication Kopech will be out a month, but manager Dave Roberts today conceded that Kopech, like Phillips, is “a little behind schedule” and is not a lock to be on the Opening Day roster (via The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya).
Like Phillips, Kopech played a key role in the Dodger bullpen after struggling with another organization. He posted a lackluster 4.73 ERA with the White Sox despite a huge 30.9% strikeout rate. Command was an issue with the South Siders, evidenced by a 12.6% walk rate, but a pitcher with Kopech’s raw stuff and former prospect pedigree seemed like he should fare better than he was with the ChiSox.
His fortunes indeed turned almost immediately after the trade. Kopech posted a microscopic 1.13 earned run average in 24 innings with Los Angeles. His 33% strikeout rate was a slight improvement, as was his 11.4% walk rate, but that walk rate was still about three percentage points higher than average. Kopech enjoyed a significant uptick in his opponents’ swinging-strike rate and chase rate, however, which adds some legitimacy to the improvement. He’s not going to sustain the ridiculous .167 average on balls in play or 91% strand rate he enjoyed with the Dodgers, but Kopech’s power arsenal and bat-missing abilities should make him a key arm for Roberts in the right-hander’s final season before free agency — assuming this forearm issue indeed proves minor.
The Dodgers, of course, made several meaningful splashes in the bullpen this winter, which will help to offset any missed time for Phillips and Kopech. In addition to re-signing Blake Treinen on a two-year deal, they gave out the largest contract for any reliever this winter when signing Tanner Scott on a four-year, $72MM deal. That pair will be joined by right-hander Kirby Yates, who inked a one-year, $13MM pact.