ATLANTA — Friday was supposed to be a significant day in the Dodgers’ plan to get Tyler Glasnow ready to be in their postseason rotation.
It was. But not in a positive way.
Glasnow was scheduled to face hitters in a simulated game setting at Truist Park, possibly the final step before coming off the injured list and rejoining the Dodgers’ starting rotation next week (in time to make three starts before the end of the regular season).
He warmed up, the field was set and hitters were gathered. But Glasnow shut it down before throwing a pitch to hitters after feeling the same “discomfort” in his arm that landed him on the IL four weeks ago.
“Obviously, it’s a setback,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I don’t know what that means as far as the coming days. I just know we’re going to re-assess and see how he feels over the coming days, see where we can pick up throwing again.”
Roberts said Glasnow was “23, 24” pitches into his warmups when “it just started to not feel good.”
Glasnow has thrown a career-high 134 innings this season, but only 31 of those have come since the end of June. He spent time on the IL with lower back pain and then went back on the IL after four starts with elbow tendinitis.
Roberts said he expects Glasnow to have some testing done on his arm to see if that diagnosis has changed.
The prognosis for the Dodgers’ postseason rotation, however, takes a serious hit if Glasnow is unable to return.
“It’s certainly not helpful and positive. But, again, we’ll see how he comes in tomorrow,” Roberts said. “It’s certainly not dead. Just today, I thought we made the right decision. If he didn’t feel well enough to continue there was no sense in pushing it today.”
Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior acknowledged there is little time for Glasnow to return from a setback and be ready for the postseason.
“I don’t know if we have margins anymore. It’s unfortunate,” Prior said. “I can’t really speak to where we’re at with anything because I really don’t know other than by not throwing today, that’s a concern and a red flag. We’ll see where we’re at tomorrow and have more information. Maybe it’s a hiccup and we can continue. But there’s also a chance that it might not be and that would be devastating.”
The Dodgers have three key starting pitchers on the IL – Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw and Gavin Stone – and just four healthy starters – trade deadline acquisition Jack Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto (who just returned this week after three months on the IL with a rotator cuff injury), Walker Buehler (who has been inconsistent) and right-hander Bobby Miller (who has struggled).
Those injuries don’t include a quartet of young pitchers who have undergone major arm surgeries over the past 14 months – Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, Emmet Sheehan and River Ryan.
The Dodgers have not hedged their answers when asked if Shohei Ohtani might pitch this season, perhaps in the postseason if they make a deep run.
“There’s no world where he’s pitching for us this postseason,” General Manager Brandon Gomes said last month.
But Roberts is hedging.
“The question I was asked was, ‘Is it a possibility?’ Anything is possible,” Roberts said of a radio interview he did this week. “We’ve still got a lot of work to get to October and through October. I hope that’s on his mind as far as motivation for his rehab. But the odds of it coming to pass are very slim. But they’re not zero. That was my only thing.”
Roberts said there have been no conversations with Ohtani about the possibility and if he did “the conversation would be, ‘Put it out of your head.’”
Ohtani has thrown off a mound a handful of times, stretching out to approximately 25 pitches recently. But Prior said Ohtani is still at least two weeks away from facing hitters in live batting practice.
“You never say never,” Prior said when asked about Roberts’ comments.
The Dodgers’ plan with Ohtani was for him to stop his throwing program when the postseason starts, eliminating the possibility that the Dodgers could lose their most dangerous hitter for the postseason with an injury sustained while throwing a bullpen session or live batting practice. Roberts acknowledged that would have to change if Ohtani was to be an option to pitch.
“I still stand by the fact that the door – it’s not a zero percent chance,” Roberts said.
Veteran reliever Joe Kelly pitched a scoreless inning for Triple-A Oklahoma City on Thursday night in the first game of a short minor-league injury rehabilitation assignment.
Kelly walked one and struck out one, throwing 17 pitches in his inning Thursday. He is expected to make one more rehab appearance with OKC before rejoining the Dodgers. Kelly is on the IL with shoulder inflammation.
Stone (shoulder) is expected to start a throwing program this weekend. …
Gonsolin (Tommy John surgery) is scheduled to make a second rehab start with OKC on Sunday.
Dodgers (RHP Jack Flaherty, 12-6, 2.86 ERA) at Braves (LHP Chris Sale, 16-3, 2.38 ERA), Saturday, 4:20 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM
