10:00PM: Roberts provided a few more updates on the pitching staff in today’s meeting with reporters (including Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times). Snell and Glasnow will throw bullpen sessions tomorrow, and Sheehan will make another Triple-A rehab start this week with the aim of going four innings deep into the game. “If he can do that, then he’s sort of going to be a viable conversation” for an activation from the IL, Roberts said. Matt Sauer has also joined the team in San Diego on the taxi squad, and could be officially recalled if the Dodgers need a fresh arm for the remainder of their series with the Padres.
10:30AM: Right-hander Tony Gonsolin became the latest Dodgers pitcher to hit the injured list over the weekend, but an MRI to evaluate his ailing elbow showed that his surgically repaired ulnar collateral ligament is intact, writes Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. Manager Dave Roberts said there’s no timetable yet for Gonsolin to resume throwing. An exact diagnosis of his injury remains unclear.
Even with the uncertain outlook, it’s a sigh of relief for the Dodgers that Gonsolin isn’t facing renewed damage in that UCL. Another tear would’ve sidelined him more than a year and possibly kept him out through the end of the 2026 season. That’d likely have ended Gonsolin’s Dodgers tenure, as he’s owed a raise on a $5.4MM salary this offseason and is only under club control through the 2026 campaign. Any injury that threatens to wipe out significant time in 2026 would result in a non-tender.
The 31-year-old Gonsolin’s return from his 2023 Tommy John procedure has been a mixed bag. He’s pitched in seven big league games this year, looking sharp out of the gate (2.81 ERA, 21-to-4 K/BB ratio in his first 16 innings) before stumbling over his past four trips to the mound. Since May 18, Gonsolin has faced the Angels, Mets (twice) and Yankees. He’s surrendered a combined 15 runs in 20 innings and served up 20 hits with an ugly 17-to-14 K/BB ratio. A whopping seven of those hits have been home runs.
Gonsolin is one of eight starting pitchers on the injured list — a number that doesn’t even include Shohei Ohtani, who’s still working his way back toward a return to the mound. Front-line arms like Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell have barely pitched this year and are on the 60-day IL at the moment. Touted young arms like Emmet Sheehan, River Ryan, Kyle Hurt and Gavin Stone opened the season on the injured list — the first three recovering from 2024 Tommy John procedures and the latter on the mend from a shoulder operation that’s likely to cost him the entire 2025 season. Prized young right-hander Roki Sasaki has been out for a month now due to a shoulder impingement.
At the moment, the Dodgers have a healthy Yoshinobu Yamamoto atop the rotation. He’s followed by franchise icon Clayton Kershaw, right-hander Dustin May and southpaw Justin Wrobleski. Veteran José Ureña is working a multi-inning role in the bullpen but has extensive experience as a starting pitcher. Rotation options down in Triple-A and already on the 40-man roster include Landon Knack, Bobby Miller, Nick Frasso and Matt Sauer. Frasso and Miller have struggled in the minors this year. Knack has been hit hard in seven big league starts. Sauer has been sharp in Triple-A and looked solid in a swingman role during limited MLB time.
Even with that laundry list of injuries, however, general manager Brandon Gomes downplayed his team’s need to go out and acquire starting pitching ahead of next month’s trade deadline. Chatting with Jon Heyman of the New York Post, Gomes stated: “With the information we have, and where the guys are now and progressing, the expectation is we will have all we need in-house.”
There could be some gamesmanship at play there, of course. It’s also notable that those comments came before Gonsolin’s placement on the injured list. Further injury troubles or setbacks for any of their on-mend-arms in the next six weeks can always heighten the need for outside help.
As things stand, the Dodgers do appear to have some near-term help on the horizon. The aforementioned Sheehan is about 13 months removed from his Tommy John surgery and is already on a minor league rehab assignment. He’s made three starts — one in the Rookie-level Complex League and two in Triple-A — and tallied nine innings of one-run ball with 14 strikeouts and just one walk (plus another plunked batter).
Sheehan tossed 57 pitches in his most recent outing on June 7. He’ll presumably need at least one more rehab start — very likely another couple — before he’s an option to rejoin the big league club, but Sheehan is a former top-100 prospect and is still just 25 years old. The right-hander’s 96.3 mph average fastball is actually up a bit from his pre-surgery levels, though it’s worth bearing in mind that he’s still effectively throwing short stints and thus not running into any velocity decline as he turns a lineup over two or three times. Regardless, his rehab work is encouraging, and Sheehan could be an option to help the big league staff before the end of the month.