Dodgers youngster Bobby Miller made his second rehab start last night as he works his way back from a bout of shoulder inflammation that has kept him out of action since mid-April. As noted by Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times, manager Dave Roberts told reporters that Miller experienced “a little velocity drop” during the start. While a drop in velocity can often be a sign of a physical issue of some sort, Roberts suggested that the club does not believe Miller to have been dealt any sort of physical setback in his recovery process.
Lower velocity could help to explain Miller’s rough final line last night, as he allowed four runs on five hits and a walk in 3 1/3 innings of work without recording a strikeout. That shaky performance doesn’t seem to have altered the club’s plans for Miller, however, as MLB.com’s Injury Tracker notes that Miller is scheduled to make his next rehab start at the Triple-A level before the Dodgers decide on whether or not he’s ready to rejoin the big league club. A fully healthy return from Miller would surely be a shot in the arm for the club, as the 25-year-old looked good in 22 starts during his rookie season last year with a 3.76 ERA and 3.51 FIP in 124 1/3 innings of work.
More notes from L.A….
- A recent report from Jon Heyman of the New York Post suggests that the Dodgers “made a late play” to land left-hander Blake Snell before he ultimately signed with the Giants on a two-year, $62MM deal. That the Dodgers had interest in Snell prior to his deal with San Francisco comes as something of a surprise given reporting from Heyman back in December that indicated the Dodgers had no interest in the reigning NL Cy Young award winner. Of course, in the months between those reports the market for Snell dried up considerably and he began to entertain short-term offers. Given Snell’s 10.42 ERA in five starts this year with the Giants, L.A. may have ended up better off by entering the season with a rotation of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Bobby Miller, James Paxton, and Gavin Stone. With Paxton and Walker Buehler both scheduled to hit free agency following the 2024 campaign, it’s possible the Dodgers could once again be a suitor for Snell’s services this winter should he rebound enough to opt out of year two of his deal with the Giants.
- DiGiovanna also relays that the club’s longtime franchise face is making progress as he looks to work his way back from shoulder surgery. Lefty Clayton Kershaw faced six hitters in a live bullpen session yesterday, and in conversation with reporters (including DiGiovanna) compared to outing to an outing that would happen in the early stages of Spring Training during a normal year. The plan for Kershaw is currently for him to work his way towards a rehab stint after bumping up to two innings during his next bullpen session. As the Injury Tracker at MLB.com notes, the veteran lefty appears to be around six weeks away from a return to the big leagues, a timeline which would put him on track to return around the All Star break next month. Kershaw pitched through shoulder troubles last year, posting a 2.46 ERA in 24 starts for the Dodgers during the regular season, but ultimately opted to undergo surgery after a disastrous postseason start against the Diamondbacks where he allowed six runs while recording just one out.
Next story: Miller schedules an appointment with Dr ElAttrache….
I never see you make any positive posts. Always negative.
Adios
Snell. Eh. Give the younger (and cheaper) prospects a chance to shine.
Whoever didn’t sign Snell, looking pretty smart.
“Didn’t sign Snell”…The same could be said for Jordy. Most Boras’ guys get hyped up as “generational”, but when you see them up close(or in back 2 back yrs), “slightly above average” or “servicable” is a more accurate description. And this includes Snell, Belli, Jordy & Pete Alonso.
I don’t think anyone viewed Snell as a generational talent. There were clear red flags that don’t accompany most 2 time Cy Young Award winners. The # of pitches per inning the guy needs and the down seasons between his 2 great seasons.
“I don’t think”…I can pretty much guarantee you that Scott Boras views Snell as “generational”, because he always does. That’s who does 90% of the hyping I referred to.
The job of Boras Corporation and all their employees is to hype their clients they represent.
Their is a clear pattern in your comments that seems to follow political lines. You seem to be anti union and are against MLBPA players and those that represent them.
And again Boras Corporation is not a singular individual. It is composed of numerous agents and roughly 100 total employees.
“Clear pattern in your comments”…And phonies like you pretend to support players, but support an MLBPA run by Scott Boras(even other union members allege he controls the MLBPA)that fights for the priorities of the top 2% of players(The Verlanders, Scherzers & Machados)while ignoring the needs and priorities of 95% of their union members. Under the Boras model, 98% of players will never see the life changing money of the top 2% and most won’t really see significant money at all.
The players elect their MLBPA representation by a simple majority. Each players vote counts equally whether they re part of the 2% or 98% that you mention.
You just absolutely verified your biased and wanton ignorance of the subject….
Didn’t you know that Boras exerts mind control over the players the same way Manfred exerts it over the owners? I’d say you heard it here first, but I’ll bet you didn’t.
There’s a few on here who don’t like Boras and blame his agency fir their part in the skyrocketing cost of the game. I can’t say they re completely wrong, but I do feel they are directing way to much blame in that direction. Regardless of which agent each franchise ultimately offers the contracts at some point.
Now in MLB Fan’s case, his position always seems to be politically motivated. As you can see above, just lightly dangling the bait he bit.
I just find it really sad that anyone regardless of which side they support could allow politics to have an influence on any views as far as sports. Sports are supposed to be something to enjoy playing and watching not a topic to be politically polarizing.
Well, I can say they are completely wrong. Baseball is just like any business in that the sellers of the product can only charge as much as we the customers are willing to pay for it, and they are never going to charge us any less than we are willing to pay for it. If they could get away with paying the best 780 players on the planet at any given time a tenth of what they are paid now, the cost of tickets and the price of a beer at the ballpark wouldn’t go down a penny. Only ownership’s profits would change. They’d go way up.
But I totally agree on the politics. Keep them out of discussions about the game. As if we don’t get enough of that everywhere else we look. Can we not have just this one refuge?
I agree 100%. Once profits went up savings were not going to be passed along to the customer. Now as far as Boras, yes him and his company have set numerous records for contracts they ve obtained for their clients. I’d say that he quite likely sped up the inevitable.
Ultimately though if Boras never became a sports agent others would have came along and contracts would be pretty much exactly where they are today. Boras only represents MLB players and salaries in NFL, NBA, and NHL have skyrocketed as well. So blaming any particular agent does not seem to jive with reality.
In the words of a great artist, it’s nobody’s fault but we need somebody to blame.
Maybe but it’s also not a dumb idea to sign the current Cy young winner
Yeah there were some red flags on Snell. Inconsistency on any given year and pitch count build up preventing him from going deep in starts.
That said, talent still there and when market rightly didn’t develop for him given red flags, not a bad idea to go short term contract like the Giants did. I’m sure the Dodgers went for a similar ST option but perhaps not as flexible (no opt-out after 2024?) or lucrative, or perhaps Snell didn’t want to be part of a crowded top heavy Dodger rotation (Glasnow, Yamamoto, Buehler, Miller and Ohtani and possibly Sasaki starting in 2025). Can’t fault the Giants though.
Could Heyman be assisting Snell and Snell’s agent (whomever that person might be) in building a market? Snell is going to have to pitch a lot better
Replace the team (the Dodgers are still a Brooklyn team, the LA version is a sham). Replace the bland boring dump of a stadium. Replace the boring rip-off team logo (complete copy/ripoff of the Yankees). Replace the vile despicable fanbase..
You might want to consider therapy.
Replace the fake 2020 sham title with a real one.
Put down the keyboard and back away, very slowly.
Replace the fake 2020 title with a real one.
Manfredsnewcondo
Doesn’t look like you’ll ever post anything that it will benefit me to read, troll
Adios
70 years in LA very soon, but sure a Brooklyn team. Did you hear about this new invention they got coming out called the TV?
Unanswered questions. When Miller returns to the rotation, who is bumped out? Or do they go with a six-man rotation?
Piggyback him with Paxton
Then alternate whom Kershaw piggybacks with when he returns
Glasnow and Yamamoto aren’t going anywhere except maybe a short IL stint.
Buehler is going to stay in the rotation to build back up.
Stone has options, but has earned a spot
That’s a big assumption given velocity drop. He may be fine but that’s usually a red flag. Not enough info so far.
That said, the Dodgers were already working with a pseudo six man rotation as most starts this year have been with 5+ days rest for all starters, utilizing bullpen games and off days.
If they keep the same strategy of using a five man rotation to give mostly five days rest, Paxton most likely slides to the pen. His last start was limited to 50 pitches as he made his first start of the year on only 4 days rest. He could be the long option along with Yarbrough on bullpen days. This would also help trim Yarbrough’s usage on those days.
Or they can go to a true six man rotation and give each starter potentially more than five days rest between starts. Or guarantee five days rest and skip someone like Paxton if off days result in more than 5 days rest.
Lots of options but I think clear that Paxton is the odd man out. He’s been the most shaky starter besides Buehler who has just returned from almost 2 years off.
Paxton is an interesting case. He hardly strikes anybody out, walks way too many, but still hasn’t been hit hard, and somehow manages to get the job done. He has never been used as a reliever in his career so I suspect the Dodgers aren’t going to give him a crash course on the bullpen now. I believe a “true” six-man rotation is the way they will go.
For a team like the Dodgers who are almost certainly headed to the playoffs and hope for a deep playoff run a 6 man rotation makes a ton of sense. Yamamoto and Glasnow need some rest neither are ready to pitch deep into October without it. How many times has Kershaw been amazing in the regular season then he’s tired in October? It happened year after year. The Dodgers know this they know they need these guys to be at their best when it matters most.
Assuming all are healthy–a BIG assumption for any team these days–I think they go with 6 starters until/unless, injuries or off days or performance dictate otherwise. The downside is it leaves LAD with 7 bullpen arms. I don’t see any of the current rotation a good fit for bullpen duty.
What Paxton is doing is unsustainable. With the amount of traffic that he is allowing that 3.29 ERA is going to balloon, and converge somewhere between that and his FIP of 5.38.
The potential quirk of going six man rotation is that with off days there will often be starts with 6 days of rest. Is that optimal to keeping starters sharp? The fresh vs sharp debate. Yamamoto may be used to that but not others.
Also, even if Paxton goes to the pen, most of appearances will be in bullpen games, so semantics on whether he’s classified as SP or RP.
Most likely it’s six man rotation but question will be if they skip Paxton once in a while to keep everyone on 5 days rest.
True. There are question marks everywhere on health. And wouldn’t be surprised if someone goes down. But Kershaw also coming back by August. Question will be if the Dodgers need to add a SP add the deadline. All depends on how confident they are in top 3, and who those SPs are and if they can stay healthy.
I can see a six man rotation. But any proof that this will keep them fresh for October? In theory, yes. Still a long season and the Dodgers started earlier due to Korea games. Kershaw will benefit from the late start, Buehler some too. But all others besides Miller shutdown have been pitching since February.
Will see if this 6 man rotation helps with injuries and keeps them fresh. Also, towards end of the season do you need to shorten rotation to keep these guys on shorter days rest for playoffs? I’d think so but when? Unless they have a dominant fourth SP I’d think they want to go to three SP early in playoffs.
Again as a Dodger fan you saw Kershaw wear down year after year after year. Yes he should be plenty fresh this year but the other guys won’t unless they get more rest now. Glasnow and Yamamoto both are not ready to pitch deep into October without either a break or going with a 6 man rotation.
You can look at Paxton two ways. One way is that he’s performing a high wire act that will lead to a fall eventually. The other is that if his peripherals regress to somewhere closer to his career work he will become even more effective. My guess in the Dodgers are expecting the latter, since in his career he’s been above average in both BB and SO rates.
I don’t know that it’s really right to say that Kershaw has worn down by the end of the season. His career stats certainly do not bear that out. For sure he’s been involved in a few disastrous postseason appearances. In one of them the opposing team was cheating. Last year, he was trying to pitch through a shoulder injury that ultimately required surgery.
I am a Cardinals fan. I saw it year after year. Best pitcher in the regular season but he sure wasn’t in the postseason.
@BlueSkies
Paxton’s underlying metrics are screaming “regression” about as loud as they possibly could.
Would be unfortunate to lose our only lefty starter–something that could be addressed in the next month-plus–but if someone has to go, then it’s got to be Paxton.
Once my man Brais comes back the Dodgers will be golden!!( maybe silver) worst case bronze!!!……………… But better than my beloved ( only cause they HAVE Brasier….)
Who’s Brais?
Hey Baron… how are ya?? Brais is short for… um… give me a second I’ll come up with something… what he was called growing up by a kid with a lisp?? Yup and I’m sticking to it…( I guess it could have been me cause I had a lisp)…
I think this is an attempt at a form of communication, but it’s an unsuccessful one.
Hey gbs42 how are you??? Fancy gold sticker by your name.. impressive…whoops sorry Baron you have it to..lol
olmtiant,
It just means I appreciate the work they do here and am happy to support it.
Thanks… seriously the game is called clue and I didn’t have one… cue Paul Harvey…
Wins 2nd cy young
Incompetent agent rejects all offers
In Last second desperation, signs essentially 1 yr deal
Puts up 11 era
Another boras success story
And another dumb, angry post by utah.
Anger is its own reward. Happily for the rest of us it usually kills its host.
Supposedly via a post I read on X, Roberts said that Glasnow is returning to more normal 4 days rest to prepare for playoffs and Yamamoto staying on extra day rest. Miller also identified as someone who could be on 4 days rest for playoffs.
Don’t know what timing is but seems a bit early to prepare and go back to 4 days rest.
& Stone is pitching today on 4 days rest
Yup. As a youngster you also wonder if they want to put a total number of innings pitched limit for Stone. In a perfect world he won’t be needed much for playoffs but you never know.
Miller and Kershaw better not take Gavin’s place and screw things up
I’m sure they will check with you first.
Friedman’s musical chairs pitching staff has everyone taking everyone’s place. It’s all about talent regardless of durability. Just gotta hope there’s enough talent available for October….
just what we need. more negativity from a perennial dolt.
There are 3 fatal issues with this roster:
* the durability of the pitching staff
* the defense on the left side of the field
* the 7 thru 9 hitters in the lineup
Friedman has work to do before the deadline….