The Los Angeles Dodgers have lost several key players recently, including Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who was placed on the 15-day injured list because of a right rotator cuff strain.
The 25-year-old was removed from his start last Saturday after throwing two scoreless innings against the Kansas City Royals. Yamamoto had been dealing with right triceps tightness, but felt he could pitch through it.
The right-hander is expected to return this season, but Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes could not provide a timeline of when that might happen, via Jack Harris of the L.A. Times:
Yamamoto’s timeline is much less certain, with Gomes saying it’s “way too early to know” to know how well, or how quickly, the right-hander will recover from the shoulder strain that knocked him out of a start after only two innings Saturday.
Gomes is not even sure when Yamamoto may begin to throw again:
“We have to take the small chunks first,” Gomes said, “before we start pushing out to the throwing progression.”
Yamamoto’s injury is a difficult one for the Dodgers to absorb as he has been one of the team’s best starting pitchers this season.
Yamamoto was 6-2 with a 2.92 ERA, 2.66 FIP, 1.07 WHIP and 10.2 strikeouts per nine in 74 innings pitched over 14 starts prior to landing on the IL.
If there is any kind of silver lining, Yamamoto’s spot in the Dodgers rotation was taken by Bobby Miller, who just completed a rehab assignment after missing more than two months due to right shoulder inflammation.
Dave Roberts explains Yoshinobu Yamamoto starting with right triceps tightness
Yamamoto’s start against the Royals was pushed back two days partly because of right triceps soreness that emerged after throwing a season-high 106 pitches against the New York Yankees.
There were reports that Yamamoto informed Dodgers pitching coaches of tightness during warmups, but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had no knowledge of the more potentially serious injury. “No, no, no. I didn’t know,” Roberts began.
“He had soreness. From what I understood, he had soreness during the week. Tyler’s going to have soreness during the week, and they get through it, they pitch and they make their starts.
“I knew he had soreness, that’s why we pushed him back, but again, I didn’t know until the second inning that he couldn’t go back out there for the third inning. And so again, if we would have known that he couldn’t pitch, we would have done something about it, but we just didn’t know.”
Have you subscribed to the Dodger Blue YouTube channel? Be sure to ring the notification bell to watch player interviews, participate in shows and giveaways, and stay up to date on all Dodgers news and rumors!
