It has been well documented this season that the Los Angeles Dodgers have been hit hard by pitching injuries. After spending truckloads in the offseason on both relievers and starters, it hasn’t panned out exactly how Los Angeles had hoped. One bright spot is that Tyler Glasnow is making his first start since April today against the Milwaukee Brewers.
The bad news, however, is that reliever Michael Kopech is being transferred to the 60-Day Injured List with knee inflammation, the team announced today.Â
The corresponding move was activating Glasnow and optioning Alexis Diaz, who was acquired about a week ago.
The initial thought was that it would be a quick stint on the IL after Kopech slipped off the mound in a game last week.
Dodgersâ Pitching Staff Continues to Get Hit Hard With Injuries
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitching staff continues to get hit hard with injuries in 2025. Starters Roki Sasaki and Blake Snell are both on the 60-day IL as well, dealing with shoulder injuries.
For Kopech, he was acquired via a trade with the Chicago White Sox about a year ago, and was imperative in the Dodgers’ 2024 World Series run.
Kopech had a 1.13 ERA in 24 innings with Los Angeles last season, and has thrown just seven innings this season, but didn’t give up any runs. The Kopech injury is really just a microcosm of a larger trend of Dodgers injuries as a team. Max Muncy will be out for at least six weeks, and Kiké Hernandez was just sent to the 10-day IL as well. Some good news is that reliever Blake Treinen will begin a rehab assignment today, but likely won’t be activated for a few weeks. Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman are also expected back as early as this week.
The list of Dodgers pitchers who are injured is long, and includes many reputable names like Snell, Tony Gonsolin, Evan Phillips, Brusdar Graterol, and now Kopech.
Dodgers Make Unfortunate History
For the first time since 2019, the Los Angeles Dodgers have lost five consecutive games. They were swept by the Houston Astros and have scored just two runs in the first two games against the Milwaukee Brewers. However, the slew of pitching injuries may be a slight cause for concern.
With the Major League Baseball trade deadline looming, it will be interesting to see if they add another high-leverage reliever to counteract the Kopech injury. The idea is that the rotation will be fine, especially considering Shohei Ohtani is finally back to pitching, and Snell and Glasnow’s return to form.
The Dodgers were expected to be one of the best teams of all time this series, and are still 19 games above .500, but the numerous injuries have certainly been unexpected. However, Los Angeles is built for October, and this string of injuries could just be the players reloading for another postseason run.
Ohtani continues to be the MVP that the Dodgers anticipated he’d be, but there are other players that Los Angeles needs to pick up the slack if they want to repeat as World Series Champions.
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