Pitchers You Don’t Care About Are Getting Hurt

Dodger pitchers are getting injured every single second. In the time it took me to write that, four more Dodger pitchers got hurt. It’s a fact! That’s just science. ESPN’s Mark Saxon has more:

Every day that goes by, the chances of the Dodgers trading for a starting pitcher seem to increase. Injuries are forcing the issue. On Friday morning, the team announced that Hyun-Jin Ryu was feeling tightness in his left shoulder and is shut down from throwing for now, making him unlikely to be ready at the start of the season.

Later Friday night in San Antonio, veteran lefty Erik Bedard, bidding to be the spot starter in Ryu’s place, left his game early with triceps tightness.

On Saturday, it was Chad Gaudin’s turn.

Perhaps the favorite to fill in for Ryu, Gaudin left his game after facing two batters in the third inning with what he would describe as a “tweak” near his right biceps. Gaudin was cruising before he allowed a Nick Hundley double and a Trevor Story triple. Catcher A.J. Ellis went to the mound and motioned for trainers.

Now, obviously, you do care about Ryu, as Dustin explained the other day, and you care about Kenley Jansen. But do you care that Brandon League is dealing with a sore shoulder? Probably not. Do you care that Bedard, who was never likely to be anything more than Triple-A depth, is sore? Nah. Do you care that Gaudin, who wasn’t exactly a popular signing in the first place, has a “tweak?” You do not.

Obviously, the more healthy pitchers the better. No one wants anyone to be getting hurt. It’s just that when the mediocre depth guys you signed to staff the Oklahoma City rotation come up sore, it’s not exactly an indication that you need to anything other than shrug and go “okay, on to the next one.” Which is to say, not having Gaudin at your disposal because he’s injured is basically the same thing as not having signed him in the first place. It’s not something that should cause much of a reaction at all.

Either way, most of the injury news is good. Ryu apparently “feels 100%” and will throw today, though we don’t yet know when he’ll get into a game. League threw a bullpen and is feeling fine, and may get back into a game as soon as Thursday. Gaudin “felt totally normal” this morning and should throw a bullpen session tomorrow. Bedard will have an MRI tomorrow.

The only name that matters there is Ryu. League is better than most give him credit for, but he’s easily replaced if needed with an army of relievers behind him, opening a spot for Pedro Baez or David Aardsma or Paco Rodriguez or whomever if he starts on the DL. Gaudin and Bedard had almost no shot of making the team anyway, and none of this sounds all that serious regardless. Let’s worry about this when it’s something that’s actually a severe injury, or happening to a pitcher likely to impact the team in 2015 in the first place.