Dodgers News: Bobby Miller Provides Update on Shoulder Injury

Ricardo Sandoval | Apr 16, 2024

Mar 29, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Bobby Miller (28) / Jonathan Hui-USA TODAY Sports

On Sunday, Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Bobby Miller was placed on the 15-day injured list due to right shoulder inflammation.

It is a huge blow to the Dodger rotation, which is still awaiting the return of Walker Buehler from the injured list and will deploy a planned bullpen game Tuesday for the third time this season. Although Miller arguably had his best outing as a pro in his season debut, his last two starts were atrocious.

Miller failed to pitch more than five innings in his last two starts after going six innings in the fourth game of the year against the St. Louis Cardinals, where he picked the win. We may not see Miller for some time now, however, he feels as if he caught the injury at a good time.

In a recent interview with the media, including Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, Miller said he hopes to miss only a short amount of time.

"It's kind of been a nagging thing for a few weeks," Miller said. "But it's nothing crazy so I'm glad we got on top of it right now instead of me trying to push through it like I normally always do. At the end of the day, it's good that I wasn't hiding anything and trying to push through it. That probably would have caused me to miss more time instead of a short amount of time which we're hoping for."

This could explain Miller's last two starts. Since his spectacular season debut, he has been a shell of himself. In 5.2 innings against the Cubs and Twins, Miller allowed nine hits, seven earned runs, two home runs, and a .375 average to hitters.

Miller's exact timetable for return has yet to be determined. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told Jack Harris and Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times that they're glad they caught Miller's injury on time.

"There wasn't one particular throw or one particular outing [in which he got hurt]," Roberts said. "He just hasn't been recovering the last couple starts. So I think for us, there's a little smoke, there's a long way to go [in the season], and we want to kind of nip it early."

Miller's eventual return could allow him and Buehler to join a group that currently includes Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, James Paxton and Gavin Stone. If the Dodgers don't elect to go with a six-man rotation, it is likely that Stone will be optioned to Triple-A if the other starters are all healthy.