Dodgers Place Another Starting Pitcher on Injured List Ahead of Series Opener

J.P. Hoornstra | Sep 6, 2024

Mar 31, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Gavin Stone (71) throws against the St. Louis Cardinals during the sixth inning at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

The Dodgers will be without starting pitcher Gavin Stone on their forthcoming homestand against the Cleveland Guardians and Chicago Cubs — and perhaps much longer — after placing the right-hander on the 15-day injured list Friday with right shoulder inflammation.

Stone, 25, was the Dodgers' only starting pitcher who had been in their rotation since Opening Day without missing time due to injury.

The rookie was 11-5 with a 3.53 ERA this season, putting him squarely in the middle of the Dodgers' postseason rotation plans.

The Dodgers also announced they optioned right-handed reliever Michael Peterson to Triple-A Oklahoma City and activated right-hander Landon Knack and left-hander Justin Wrobleski.

Knack is starting Friday. Wrobleski, in theory, could take Stone’s place in the Dodgers’ rotation.

It's the first time that Stone, the Dodgers' fifth-round pick in 2020, has gone on the injured list in his career. He led one of baseball's most unstable rotations with 25 starts and 140.1 innings, a career high.

17 different pitchers have started at least one game for #Dodgers this season. 11 of them have also spent time on the IL. Gavin Stone led the team with 25 starts and had not missed a start until now

— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) September 6, 2024

Stone's injury deals a significant blow to a team desperate for some stability in its rotation. It also opens a door for Knack, who had been riding the shuttle back-and-forth to Triple-A Oklahoma City all year long while showing some promise in his first extended major-league look.

In 10 starts, Knack is 2-2 with a 3.00 earned-run average. He'll start Friday in place of Clayton Kershaw, who's on the injured list with a bone spur in his left big toe.

The Dodgers lost more man-games to injury in 2023 than any other team. This year, the team was counting on the returns to health of Clayton Kershaw (who missed all of the first half recovering from offseason shoulder surgery), and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (lost to a rotator cuff injury in June) to join a staff led by Opening Day starter Tyler Glasnow and trade-deadline acquisition Jack Flaherty.

But Kershaw threw only one inning in his last start against the Arizona Diamondbacks before leaving because of a bone spur in his left big toe. Glasnow was placed on the 15-day injured list with a sore elbow and is running out of time to get off a mound.

Amid the season-long struggles of Bobby Miller (2-4, 7.79 ERA) and Walker Buehler (1-4, 5.67), Stone was a source of consistency.

Now the Dodgers will await his return while trying to patch together a playoff rotation as the regular season nears its conclusion. What that rotation will look like — including the availability of Stone — is anyone's guess.