The Dodgers placed Tyler Glasnow on the 15-day injured list with lower back spasms. Righty Paul Gervase has been recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City and will be available out of the bullpen for tonight’s series opener against the Braves.
Glasnow exited Wednesday’s start against the Astros after one inning. He tweaked his lower back while warming up for the second frame. Glasnow downplayed the issue postgame, noting it’s a minor problem with which he has dealt throughout his career. The Dodgers nevertheless opted to shelve him for a couple weeks to allow the issue to subside.
The All-Star righty has worked to a 2.72 earned run average in his first seven turns through the rotation. He’s tied with Chris Sale for sixth in the National League with 49 strikeouts. Glasnow continues to perform at a top-of-the-rotation level when he’s healthy. The durability is the ever present caveat. Glasnow has yet to reach 140 innings in an MLB season. Aside from the shortened 2020 schedule, he has gone on the injured list at least once in each year since 2018.
There’s no indication this will be more than a minimal IL stay. The Dodgers were off yesterday but will play 13 in a row and 19 of the next 20 days. Glasnow will miss at least two starts. Los Angeles will welcome Blake Snell from the injured list to make his season debut tomorrow. Emmet Sheehan is taking the ball tonight in the series opener, while Justin Wrobleski is lined up for the weekend finale.
Skipper Dave Roberts said Roki Sasaki is likely to go on Monday for the series opener against the Giants (via Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic). That’d set up Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani for the final two games of the San Francisco series. Glasnow’s injury means the Dodgers can delay a decision on whether to bump Sasaki or Sheehan from the six-man rotation. They’ll play with a nine-man bullpen tonight but will need to option a pitcher tomorrow to activate Snell, so it’s likely to be a one-day stint for Gervase.
