The Dodgers’ litany of pitching accidents continues to mount. Proper-hander Kyle Damage is slated to bear Tommy John surgical procedure, experiences Doug McKain of Dodgers Nation. Tommy John surgical procedure usually comes with a restoration timeline of 12 to 16 months, so Damage will likely be sidelined till late within the 2025 season at the least — and presumably into the 2026 marketing campaign.
Damage, 26, got here to the Dodgers from the Marlins alongside lefty Alex Vesia in a commerce sending righty Dylan Floro to Miami. The 2020 fifth-rounder shortly climbed the group’s prospect rankings, coming into the ’24 marketing campaign as L.A.’s No. 11 prospect at Baseball America and No. 7 over at FanGraphs.
Although he pitched within the majors final season and briefly earlier in 2024, Damage has totaled solely 8 2/3 innings on the MLB degree. He’s yielded just one run with a 6-to-1 Okay/BB ratio in that point. Damage has spent the remainder of the 2024 season in Triple-A Oklahoma Metropolis — totally on the minor league injured record. He missed two months early this season on account of irritation in his shoulder, got here again as a reliever in early June, and was positioned again on the injured record a month later. This newest journey to the IL, it appears, will final fairly a bit longer.
Damage has frolicked on the injured record each in 2022 and now in 2024. He’s a clearly proficient arm however has additionally but to achieve 100 innings in knowledgeable season. The suitable-hander tossed 92 frames of three.91 ERA ball between Double-A and Triple-A final season (plus two shutout MLB innings), and as Baseball America factors out, he led all minor leaguers (min. 90 innings) with a colossal 39.2% strikeout price. Damage’s heater sits mid-90s and touches the higher 90s, and his changeup attracts plus grades on the 20-80 scale — with FanGr.aphs going as far as to grade it as a real 80 providing.
BA’s scouting report on Damage cited sturdiness as a priority even earlier than the present season. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen w0rote in March that Damage comes with “plenty of reduction threat” however had an opportunity to work as a five-inning starter. Even when that’s not the case, Damage profiles as a possible high-end reliever given his velocity — which might presumably tick up in one-inning stints — the standard of his changeup and the benefit with which he misses bats.
All of that will likely be placed on maintain in the interim, however Damage can have a number of choice years remaining past the present season. He’ll flip 27 subsequent Might, so he’ll be on the older facet for a “prospect” by the point he returns in late 2025 or early 2026, however the high quality of his arsenal is tantalizing sufficient that the Dodgers (or maybe one other membership) will preserve carrying him on the 40-man roster with an eye fixed towards the profit that may be reaped sooner or later.
