Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Hello and welcome to the last post before Spring Training games start at Camelback Ranch for the Dodgers. It’s good to have baseball back.
Surely nobody will overreact to these games, right? Surely.
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Fortunately, there hasn’t been much news at Camelback Ranch for the past week or so. Mainly just training and fun videos, which is what we like to see.
Stuff like Shohei Ohtani continuing to get ready with bombs and Yoshinobu Yamamoto throwing live batting practice…
No. 17 is locked in. pic.twitter.com/ZdoFmM9vHb
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) February 16, 2024
A Shohei homer in his first live BP session. ? pic.twitter.com/T9PUVNUMk3
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) February 19, 2024
Yoshinobu Yamamoto's first live BP? Electric. pic.twitter.com/Q4wExEtpjA
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) February 17, 2024
…or Teoscar Hernandez teaching Ohtani and Yamamoto some Spanish, taking us along on photo day, and Freddie Freeman, Jason Heyward, Miguel Rojas, and Will Smith playing some golf.
Teoscar teaching Shohei and Yoshinobu Spanish. ? pic.twitter.com/pOTQFdW0MK
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) February 21, 2024
Behind the scenes on Photo Day with Teoscar! pic.twitter.com/5NwaDiU5q7
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) February 21, 2024
Golfing with Freddie. ? pic.twitter.com/4pRvQ7GY38
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) February 21, 2024
Also, a late addition, Mookie Betts getting dusted by Kirsten Watson.
Moriyama-cast pic.twitter.com/KXYhEq1Qqg
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) February 22, 2024
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As far as the injury front goes, it’s seemingly solid except that Walker Buehler is gonna be a bit.
Dave Roberts didn’t have a firm timeline for when Walker Buehler will return to a big league mound after his delayed start on the IL, but one indicator: it’s “unlikely” that Buehler will pitch in any Cactus League games, Roberts said.
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) February 19, 2024
Walker Buehler is going to throw another bullpen in the next few days. If that goes well, he can get a live batting practice in next, Roberts said.
— Blake (@ByBlakeWilliams) February 22, 2024
“He’ll probably disagree with that,” Roberts added.
Hard not to be somewhat concerned about that, though they insist it’s just playing it safe for the purpose of completing rehab and managing his innings.
Throughout the winter, the Dodgers had hinted at the idea of delaying Buehler’s start to the season, hoping to manage the right-hander’s innings total and keep him fresh for a potential October run.
I think my skepticism in anything medical related is well earned by the Dodgers by now, so we’ll see.
Meanwhile, Blake Treinen, J.P. Feyereisen, and Daniel Hudson are all supposed to be on pace to be ready.
Dave Roberts said Blake Treinen (shoulder surgery), J.P. Feyereisen (shoulder surgery) and Daniel Hudson (sprained MCL) are all tracking to be on the active roster in Korea.
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) February 16, 2024
Roberts said Hudson is still working through some execution stuff after missing close to two seasons.
If that’s true, it would likely lock in the pen even more than it already is.
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On the minor-league free agent signings front, the Dodgers inked left-handed reliever Justin Wilson.
Free-agent reliever Justin Wilson in agreement with the Los Angeles Dodgers, pending physical, according to a source familiar with the deal.
— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) February 16, 2024
This makes sense when considering Wilson’s track record of success, holding a career ERA of 3.41 with an FIP of 3.45 across 11 seasons and 467 innings. However, he has just 37.2 innings of 5.02 ERA ball since 2020, having Tommy John surgery in June of 2022, then getting injured in July of 2023 when he was warming up for his return outing. Fortunately, it was a lat strain and not something more serious, but he never made it back to the majors that year.
Ryan Yarbrough and Alex Vesia will likely be two lefties guaranteed to make the pen, and Wilson will compete with Matt Gage, T.J. McFarland, and Stephen Gonsalves this Spring for a spot in the pen, or most likely for the right to be the first called up. One thing of note with Wilson is that he’s basically split neutral for his career, giving up a .672 OPS to lefties and a .641 OPS to righties.
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Game time.
