The Dodgers haven’t been able to keep a full rotation off the injured list for much of the year, and that group might’ve suffered another injury Saturday night. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was removed after two scoreless innings and only 28 pitches. He was replaced with Michael Grove.
The Dodgers announced that Yamamoto is dealing with triceps tightness.
The concern with Yamamoto has to be the decrease in velocity. His last pitch was a fourseam fastball that registered at 93.3 miles per hour and his average this season has been 95.5 m.p.h. His last splitter was 88.1 m.p.h. against a 90.1 seasonal average while his last curve was 74.5 m.p.h. against a 78 m.p.h. average.
Cameras caught Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior appearing to notify manager Dave Roberts that there was an issue and then Yamamoto was replaced with Grove.
If Yamamoto is only dealing with tightness, it’s entirely possible that he’ll be cleared before his next start and this will end up being a precautionary move that worked out well. On the other side, there’s obviously concern that there is something deeper with Yamamoto’s arm, specially in light of the injuries the Dodgers have had in the rotation.
Bobby Miller is due to return from the injured list this coming week. He’s been sidelined due to shoulder inflammation since his third start of the season. Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Clayton Kershaw are recovering from major surgery and Emmet Sheehan had elbow surgery last month. And, of course, Shohei Ohtani is also recovering from elbow surgery.
It’s worth noting that the Dodgers have gotten full workloads from Yamamoto (to this point), Tyler Glasnow, Gavin Stone and James Paxton, while Walker Buehler has made seven starts in his return from Tommy John surgery. That is to say that even with all these rotation injuries, they’ve been able to have a pretty steady five-man rotation for a decent number of weeks.
Perhaps this Yamamoto issue breaks that up, but with the return of Miller being imminent, there could be a natural transition. There’s also the possibility, as noted, that Yamamoto ends up avoiding an IL stint altogether.
CBS Sports will update this news story as more information becomes available
