As the Los Angeles Dodgers await the returns of several pitchers from the injured list, Brusdar Graterol and Blake Treinen joined Triple-A Oklahoma City on Friday night for the start of respective rehab assignments.
Treinen was first to appear, entering in the sixth inning and retiring the side in order. He collected one strikeout and only needed nine pitches (seven strikes) to get through the inning. Treinen’s fastball velocity got up to 96 mph.
He’s been out since April 22 because of a right shoulder injury. The Dodgers have long planned for Treinen to return at some point after the All-Star break, though it was delayed a bit due to the team exercising an abundance of caution.
Treinen is projected to be activated off the 60-day IL on or around Sept. 1. Prior to joining Oklahoma City, he faced batters in multiple simulated games. The last of which was on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium, when Treinen faced Justin Turner and Joey Gallo.
Treinen’s last pitch of the session was clocked at 98 mph. The 34-year-old has focused on keeping a micro outlook and not worrying about any sort of rough timeline for his return.
“Every day has got to be good, and the next day has to feel better. From there we move forward,” Treinen said last week. “I would say it feels like it’s trending in the right direction still. But it’s not so much how I feel right now, it’s how I feel tomorrow.
“And then I have to get to the point where I can go back-to-back. But today was a good step, for sure.”
Meanwhile, Graterol pitched the seventh inning for Oklahoma City on Friday night, and erased a leadoff walk by inducing a double play. Graterol followed that by getting a strikeout to face the minimum on 14 pitches (eight strikes).
Graterol has been out since July 11 due to right shoulder inflammation. He’s considered ahead of Treinen with respect to a return date.
Dodgers not worried about results with Graterol & Treinen
Similar to other cases when players joined OKC for a rehab assignment, the Dodgers aren’t overly concerned with how Graterol and Treinen are going to fair in terms of statistics and outcomes.
“We’re going to be looking at results as far as characteristics probably, not as far as if a guy gets a hit,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts recently explained. “They both throw strikes, so it’s a matter of in Brusdar’s case, how is the slider looking? How is he recovering from the velocity of the sinker, the cutter?
“With Blake, how is his slider playing? How is he feeling? All that stuff.”
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