Yoshinobu Yamamoto will return to the Dodgers’ rotation on Tuesday. Supervisor Dave Roberts advised reporters (together with Alden González of ESPN) that the right-hander will get the beginning for the second recreation of subsequent week’s set with the Cubs. Yamamoto is on the 60-day injured listing and can have to be reinstated onto the 40-man roster.
It’ll possible be a short look. Yamamoto final pitched within the majors on June 15. A rotator cuff pressure knocked him out of motion for greater than two months. The 26-year-old joined Triple-A Oklahoma Metropolis on a rehab stint final week. He solely pitched there twice, topping out at two innings. He labored via 53 pitches final evening, and whereas his outcomes weren’t good, he constructed up sufficient that the Dodgers don’t really feel he wants one other rehab look.
The Dodgers will presumably restrict Yamamoto to someplace within the 60-75 pitch vary subsequent week. L.A. has a good 5.5-game cushion on the Padres within the NL West. They’re a recreation up on the Phillies for the highest seed within the Nationwide League and three away from the Brewers for a first-round bye. They’re nonetheless taking part in significant common season video games, however the major focus is once more on October.
Yamamoto ought to have the ability to log 4 turns via the rotation earlier than the common season concludes. That’d be ample time to construct to a typical starter’s pitch depend going into the postseason. If his stuff returns to pre-injury ranges, he could possibly be Roberts’ alternative to start out the primary recreation of a playoff sequence. Yamamoto’s first MLB begin was a nightmare, as he allowed 4 hits and 5 runs and didn’t make it to the second inning. The previous NPB star has been as marketed since then. Within the 13 begins since his debut, he sports activities a 2.34 earned run common with a 28.1% strikeout price via 73 innings.
Whereas it’s too quickly to make definitive judgments in regards to the Dodgers’ $325MM funding, Yamamoto was pitching just like the top-of-the-rotation arm that L.A. anticipated. He’s a part of a particularly high-variance rotation. Jack Flaherty and Gavin Stone are main the group for the time being. Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw are on the IL. The Dodgers appear hopeful that each Glasnow and Kershaw will likely be again with a pair weeks to spare. In the event that they get every of Yamamoto, Glasnow, Flaherty, Stone and Kershaw firing on all cylinders, they’ll go into the playoffs with a wonderful rotation. That’s an enormous ask with the well being uncertainty surrounding most of that group.
Kershaw went on the IL over the weekend with a bone spur in his left massive toe. The Dodgers will flip to rookie righty Landon Knack in his place for Friday’s sequence opener with the Guardians, Roberts mentioned (by way of Invoice Plunkett of the Orange County Register). Knack has been on and off the MLB roster as an harm alternative all through the season. He has carried out properly when referred to as upon, working to a good 3.00 ERA over 48 innings.
The Dodgers have optioned Knack for the utmost 5 occasions this season. They’ll recall him once more on Friday and would wish to place him on waivers to ship him again to Oklahoma Metropolis this 12 months. They’re not going to do this — he’d actually get claimed — so Knack will in all probability maintain a spot within the bullpen for the ultimate couple weeks as soon as Yamamoto returns to the rotation.
