After studying he’d earned his first profession All-Star choice Sunday, Tyler Glasnow highlighted one accomplishment from the primary half of his season above all else.
Through the season’s first three months, the Dodgers’ ace had made all 18 of his begins atop the crew’s rotation.
After years of repeated damage woes, Glasnow’s team-leading 109 innings represented his longest stretch of extended well being as a giant leaguer.
“[I’ve been] just trying to post up every start and log innings,” mentioned Glasnow, who was 8-5 with a 3.47 ERA. “I’m just glad I was able to make every start.”
Barely 48 hours later, that streak of excellent well being got here to an abrupt finish.
The Dodgers put Glasnow on the injured checklist Tuesday afternoon due to again tightness, after the pitcher’s again flared up on him whereas enjoying catch Sunday, in accordance to supervisor Dave Roberts.
Roberts emphasised that the preliminary prognosis for Glasnow just isn’t severe.
He mentioned the right-hander ought to be again with the crew shortly after subsequent week’s All-Star break. Roberts mentioned had the break not been on the horizon, there “might have been a thought to see” if Glasnow may nonetheless make his subsequent begin this week.
Most of all, Roberts famous, with Glasnow already nearing his earlier profession excessive of 120 innings in a season, the crew had been contemplating methods to give him some form of break throughout the second half of the season, anyway.
“We obviously were thinking about that, with no real idea when it might or might not happen,” Roberts acknowledged. “But with the back flare-up, we just felt this is as good of a time as any.”
That’s the glass-half-full perspective on Glasnow’s damage — one the crew hopes will likely be a short-term setback for the 30-year-old pitcher, and never one that can drive the Dodgers to recalculate their roster wants forward of the July 30 commerce deadline.
But it additionally comes amid a string of different accidents for the rotation, which is already with out Yoshinobu Yamamoto (rotator cuff pressure), Walker Buehler (hip irritation amid his struggles getting back from Tommy John surgical procedure) and Clayton Kershaw (who will resume his minor league rehabilitation task Saturday with triple-A Oklahoma City).
The Dodgers expect all of these pitchers to return throughout the second half of the season.
They even have Gavin Stone, the rookie right-hander who has statistically been the crew’s greatest pitcher this season with a 9-2 report and three.03 ERA. Roberts vouched for Stone to substitute Glasnow on the National League All-Star roster.
Yet given Glasnow’s historical past of accidents — together with years of elbow troubles that finally led to Tommy John surgical procedure, in addition to an indirect pressure that sidelined him for elements of final 12 months — any setback will include a degree of frustration and concern.
“It’s certainly not ideal,” Roberts conceded. “But my job is to keep this thing moving forward.”
Roberts tried to focus on the potential advantages Glasnow’s break may present in the long term.
Though the Dodgers hadn’t determined if, or exactly when, the pitcher can be shut down to handle his innings whole, the group was leaning towards some form of pause in his season to be sure that he didn’t surpass final 12 months’s 120-inning workload by a lot main into the playoffs.
“I don’t know if blessing in disguise is the right term [for this],” Roberts mentioned, “but it does give him a little reset.”
The damage additionally comes on the heels of Glasnow’s worst stretch this season. In every of his final two begins, Glasnow had given up 5 runs and walked a number of batters. While there have been no outward indicators of fatigue in his fastball velocity, breaking ball form and even arm pace, Roberts mentioned, poorly executed pitches had turn into extra widespread.
Those struggles didn’t affect the Dodgers’ determination to put Glasnow on the IL, Roberts mentioned.
He will now have time to not solely let his again heal, but additionally refine his supply earlier than returning for the stretch run of the season.
“Butting up to the All-Star break,” Roberts mentioned, “we just wanted to get ahead of it.”
Until Glasnow truly returns to the mound, and rediscovers the shape that keyed his first choice to the Midsummer Classic, his again damage will linger as yet one more query for the Dodgers’ pitching workers — which earlier than Tuesday’s information was already coping with loads of them.
“You just pick up the pieces, or whatever pieces you have,” Roberts mentioned, “and you have to readjust and move forward.”
