Dodgers right-hander Brusdar Graterol underwent back surgery yesterday and could miss the remainder of the season as a result, reports Jack Harris of the California Post. The right-hander, already on the mend from Nov. 2024 shoulder surgery, missed all of the 2025 season and hasn’t thrown in a big league game since the 2024 playoffs.
Specifics of Graterol’s surgery aren’t clear, but it’s a frustrating setback for an extremely talented right-hander who simply hasn’t been able to avoid the injured list. Graterol pitched only seven regular-season innings in 2024 due to recurring shoulder troubles. He’s pitched in parts of six MLB seasons but has only 50 innings in one of those six seasons. Graterol boasts a terrific 2.78 earned run average in his career but has only managed to pitch 190 2/3 frames dating back to his late-season debut with the Twins in 2019.
Minnesota traded Graterol to the Dodgers in the 2019-20 offseason deal that sent Kenta Maeda the other direction. In retrospect, it’s been a pretty fair deal for both sides. Both pitchers missed substantial time with injury but were largely effective when healthy enough to take the mound with their new teams. Graterol has a 2.69 ERA in 180 innings as a Dodger (not including the playoffs) and was dominant in the healthiest season of his career (2023): 67 1/3 innings, 1.20 ERA, 19 holds, seven saves, 18.7% strikeout rate, 4.7% walk rate and a colossal 64.4% ground-ball rate.
The surgery could very well spell the end of Graterol’s tenure in Los Angeles. It doesn’t sound as though it’s a foregone conclusion that his season is finished, but if this does shelve him for the remainder of the year, he’s slated to become a free agent for the first time in the 2026-27 offseason.
At the very least, Harris notes that Graterol is facing a monthslong absence. Perhaps he can return for a handful of late appearances, as he did in 2024, but the Dodgers will again navigate the summer without one of their most talented bullpen arms. Graterol had begun a rehab assignment in early May before suffering a setback a couple weeks in.
The Dodgers already had Edwin Diaz on the 60-day IL after he required surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow. Evan Phillips is nearing the one-year anniversary of his Tommy John surgery and is still a ways from returning. Brock Stewart has managed to pitch only two innings this season owing to shoulder and foot injuries. Ben Casparius has been out since mid-April due to shoulder inflammation.
Despite that slate of injuries, L.A.’s bullpen has been dominant. Dodgers relievers rank fourth in the majors in ERA (3.12), first in FIP (3.15), fifth in SIERA (3.36), second in strikeout rate (25.6%) and ninth in walk rate (9.2%). Their top seven relievers by innings pitched — Tanner Scott, Alex Vesia, Will Klein, Jack Dreyer, Kyle Hurt, Edgardo Henriquez and Blake Treinen — all have ERAs of 3.43 or better.
