Just when the Dodgers thought they were getting back to full strength, the injuries again begin to pile up.
In a highly concerning development, starter Tyler Glasnow is “highly unlikely” to pitch again this season due to a sprained right elbow, manager Dave Roberts announced Saturday.
Glasnow has since cleaned out his locker at Truist Park in Atlanta, where the Dodgers play the final game of a four-game set Monday night, and has left the team for destination unknown.
“I don’t know where he flew to,” Roberts said Sunday, per the Orange County Register. “But he’s not with the team, no.”
It is expected that Glasnow will miss the rest of the season due to this setback happening in mid-September and this injury is a brutal development for both the oft-injured righty and the team.
Glasnow recently signed a massive five-year, $136.5 million extension with the Dodgers after having been traded from the Rays in the offseason.
He had been producing his best season since 2021, posting a 2.2 WAR to go along with a 3.49 ERA and 168 strikeouts in 134 innings.
Glasnow landed on the injured list on Aug. 16 with right below tendinitis and had been working toward a return, but had a setback that led to scans which revealed the sprain.
The Dodgers were hoping that Glasnow’s injury concerns were behind him, but they are now lacking a frontline pitcher entering the postseason.
For Glasnow, it’s another blow in a career that has often been interrupted by injuries.
He previously experienced a long recovery time from Tommy John surgery in 2021, making just two starts in 2022 before notching 21 last year.
Glasnow’s 22 starts this season marked a career-high.
“I mean, given the amount of innings and the amount of injuries the previous years, I think, to say that is probably fair,” Glasnow said after the extension of being criticized for not being able to stay healthy. “I think that, for me, the majority of the innings that I’ve missed had been related to the same (elbow) injury.”
The Dodgers have been dealing with pitching injuries throughout the season.
Los Angeles recently welcomed back Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Sept. 10 and Clayton Kershaw and Gavin Stone are working back from 15-day injured list. They also have been without Tony Gonsolin.
NL MVP favorite Shohei Ohtani is not pitching this year after undergoing Tommy John surgery last year.
“It’s a big blow, looking at what he meant for our ball club, what he’s done for us, what we expected him to do,” Roberts said. “Certainly, there’s going to be a cost but we’ve got to move on and we will and we have a lot of capable people. I feel bad for Tyler because he did everything to stay healthy and get back and it just wasn’t going to happen.”