Flamethrowing Dodgers Setup Man BruSdar Graterol underwent shoulder surgery in November. He hoped to be able to pitch in the second half of the season. Nevertheless, Manager Dave Roberts indicated on Wednesday to the Dodger Beat that the chances of the large side of the right to come back to a big league-hill in 2025 slim (Link via Mike Digiovanna van de la Times). Graterol is with the staff of the team in their spring complex in Arizona, but has not yet resumed to throw a ball, with just over six weeks of the season.
It has been a discouraging few years for the 26-year-old Graterol, who acquired the Dodgers in a trade in 2020 that Righty sent Kenta Maeda On the twins. Graterol was one of the best young arms in Minnesota at the time, but the twins felt comfortable to act because of the remaining four years on Maeda’s contract and perhaps partly due to concerns about shoulder problems with Graterol.
Early it seemed like a win-win for both parties. Maeda was the Al Cy Young number two in the short 2020 season. Graterol immediately played an important role in the bullpen of manager Dave Roberts. However, injuries for both pitchers would considerably reduce their workload with their new clubs.
From 2020-23 Graterol 173 2/3 of 2/3 of 2.69 ERA ball for the Dodgers threw. He has never missed bats as one would expect from a pitcher who is 99 km / h with his zinc shed and regularly increases it in triple figures, but the large right side is also one of the most important Ground-Ball pitchers of the sport. During that peak of 2020-23 he only blew 18.9% of his opponents, but also delivered a great walking percentage of 5.5% and an elite 62.5% ground ball percentage.
While the results were at the time, Graterol also stood five different times on the injured list for elbow or shoulder problems with the Dodgers before they eventually underwent surgery to repair the Labrum in his right shoulder. Last year he only threw 7 1/3 innings and apparently does not return to the hill in 2025.
Graterol will be paid for $ 2.8 million this season and is still under club control via arbitration for another year. ARB-Obitable players who miss a whole season as a result of injury usually agrees to sign the following year for the same amount, assuming they have offered a contract. Given the strong results of Graterol when healthy and minimal costs for the deep pocket-dodgers, they will probably keep him and hope for a healthy year in 2026 (assuming that there have been no remarkable setbacks in his rehabilitation).
However, it is not all bad news about the Dodger -Bullpen. Roberts told reporters that right last night Michael Kopech starts on Thursday a Minor League Rehabilitation assignment (Link via the Fabian Ardaya of the athletics). Kopech opened the 2025 season on the injured list because of a shoulder decisions that eventually sent him to the 60-day IL. He returned to June and came out of the gates with seven shutout frames, but something was eliminated in his last performance, while he was walking three of the four batters with which he was confronted before he was canceled and placed on the injured list because of inflammation in his knee.
Kopjech initially trivialized the severity, but as soon as the inflammation decreased, imaging revealed a torn meniscus. He underwent an operation and was quickly returned to the 60-day IL. He has been on the injured list since 1 July, so Kopech is not eligible to be activated until the end of the month. It is encouraging that he already starts on a rehabilitation tint, because he will have a runway of more than two weeks to build himself before he is eligible for the first time to return.
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