When the Dodgers traded for Brock Stewart at the trade deadline, they knew he came with some risk.
But on Friday, their worst-case scenario was realized.
His season has come to a premature end.
Though the Dodgers’ bullpen held on for a 3-2 win against the Seattle Mariners, manager Dave Roberts announced before the game that Stewart will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery, leaving the team without the only significant deadline addition it made to bolster their struggling relief corps.
Although the Dodgers (91-69) have been managing several injury concerns — from Will Smith’s fractured hand, to Tommy Edman’s sore ankle, to leg bruises that Max Muncy revealed on Friday he has been dealing with — Stewart’s status had become among the most alarming.
Even after completing a minor-league rehab stint for a shoulder problem that had kept him out since early August, he continued to feel residual soreness.
After meeting with head team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache this week, Stewart and the team decided surgery was necessary. According to general manager Brandon Gomes, the 33-year-old is having a debridement procedure that should allow him to pitch the “majority” of next season, when he will still be under Dodgers control.
But for this October, the club will have to proceed without him.
“We had a lot of conversations with Brock, and he was like, ‘Hey, I want to help this team in any way possible,’” Gomes said. “But watching him throw and just having the conversations with him, there was still something that was just bothering him. As much as we would love to have him right now, we don’t want to put his long-term health at risk.”
Without Stewart, the Dodgers’ right-handed relief hierarchy is somewhat unclear.
They still have longtime stalwart Blake Treinen, but his already career-worst ERA rose to 5.61 after giving up a run in the eighth inning Friday night. Hard-throwing rookie Edgardo Henriquez has a 2.50 ERA in 21 appearances but has just 21⅓ career innings in the big leagues.
There is Roki Sasaki, the rookie Japanese phenom who returned from a shoulder injury earlier this week, and tossed his second scoreless inning of high-leverage relief Friday.
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After giving up a two-out double in the seventh to Randy Arozarena on a 100 mph fastball that clanged off the top of the wall, Sasaki responded by fanning MLB home run leader Cal Raleigh with three straight splitters, quieting a sold-out crowd at T-Mobile Park that was chanting “MVP!” for the star catcher.
“I actually liked him giving up the hit to Arozarena, to see how he responded,” Roberts said. “He responded admirably. Unfazed by the moment.”
Another name that will enter the mix: Starting pitcher Emmet Sheehan, who was removed after just one inning Friday to prepare for his planned October move to the bullpen, where Roberts said he likely will pitch in single-inning, high-leverage situations.
“In the playoffs, anything is on the table,” Sheehan said. “So I’m cool with whatever.”
In all, Friday ended up being an encouraging day for the Dodgers’ healthy relievers, who combined for eight innings of one-run ball — punctuated by Tanner Scott escaping a bases-loaded jam in the ninth for his first save in a one-run game since July 12.
Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott, right, celebrates with catcher Ben Rortvedt after the team’s 3-2 win over the Mariners on Friday. (Ryan Sun / Associated Press)
“It certainly hasn’t been the year that we envisioned,” Roberts said of Scott, who is still just 23 of 33 in save opportunities with a 4.74 ERA. “But he potentially has the opportunity to make it all go away by showing his best in the postseason. So I don’t know how it’s going to look right now, but I think for him, he needed that one and we needed it as well.”
Still, losing Stewart is a blow to the Dodgers’ postseason relief depth.
Shoulder problems are nothing new for Stewart. Last season, he made just 16 appearances with the Minnesota Twins before undergoing arthroscopic shoulder surgery in August.
While his latest injury is not believed to be directly related to last year’s issue, Gomes did acknowledge that “any time you’re taking on a pitcher, we understand that there are risks.”
It’s not that the Dodgers overpaid for Stewart, who had a 2.38 ERA with the Twins when the Dodgers acquired him for former prospect James Outman. But, by not adding a bigger name in a bullpen that had been slumping even before the deadline (and has further spiraled in the two months since), the Dodgers put a lot of eggs in the right-hander’s basket. Now, he leaves yet another hole to fill.
Will Smith’s status
Dodgers catcher Will Smith sprints to first after hitting a double against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium on Sept. 9. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Little has changed in Smith’s recovery from a hand fracture, with Roberts saying he was “hoping” — but not “hopeful” — about the catcher being available for next week’s best-of-three wild-card round.
“He’s going to start trying to swing a bat,” Roberts said. “That’ll kind of give us a little bit more information. Potentially start throwing as well.”
Roberts also noted that “each day, Will does say it’s feeling a little bit better.”
However, given the nature of his injury, “it’s just tricky,” Gomes added.
“You never know with bones,” Gomes said. “One day it might feel better and we can really take off. We’re not closing off the door to that right now. But we got to make sure to check some boxes before that.”
If Smith is not available to catch in the wild-card round, which begins Tuesday, Roberts reiterated that Ben Rortvedt will likely see the “lion’s share” of playing time.
Edman, Muncy getting rest
In better injury news, Roberts sounded hopeful of having Edman and Muncy for the start of the playoffs. On Friday, however, he gave them both a second consecutive day off.
Edman has been dealing with the latest flare-up to his long-bothersome ankle injury, having tweaked it again while running down a fly ball in center field in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s win in Arizona.
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“It’s not gonna be 100% throughout the rest of the season. It is something we’re gonna have to keep managing,” Roberts said. “But my thought is he’ll be back in there tomorrow.”
Muncy, meanwhile, revealed Friday that he has been battling some leg bruising, which was at least in part the result of a hit-by-pitch he took to his lower half last week against the San Francisco Giants.
But, like Edman, the Dodgers’ expectation is that he’ll be ready for Game 1.
“It’s just trying to be smart about a couple things,” Muncy said. “Just trying to manage all of that, stay on top of that and hopefully clean all that up.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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