Alex Wood Hits IL, Dodgers Starting Pitching Depth To be Tested Again
Editor's note: Given the news about the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Marlins organization Sunday and the postponement of both the Baltimore Orioles series at Miami and the New York Yankees at Philadelphia series (both of which were scheduled to begin Monday), let's acknowledge that the health of all affected is rightly top-of-mind throughout the baseball industry, and certainly at Inside the Dodgers. For the moment, however, we're going to continue to post Dodgers-related material while we wait to see how Major League Baseball responds, and on how news develops. Admittedly, we're uncomfortable about it.
And then there were two. Two pitchers from the Dodgers' originally-planned starting rotation remain active. These two: Julio Urias and the innings-limited Walker Buehler, who starts tonight at Houston.
Clayton Kershaw's club-record ninth Opening Day start was scratched last Thursday as the veteran left-hander was shelved with bad soreness, David Price chose to opt out of the season because of COVID-related issues, and now Wood.
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Here is the precise language released by the Dodgers this morning: "The Los Angeles Dodgers have placed left-handed pitcher Alex Wood on the injured list with shoulder inflammation and have recalled right-handed pitcher Josh Sborz."
A starter down and a reliever recalled, which is what the Dodgers often do in the short-term. They don't need a replacement for Wood until Friday and management will cross that bridge when they get to it.
It's conceivable that Tony Gonsolin (optioned seven days ago) could have thrown on Saturday and be in line to start on five days rest Friday, although the stated reason for his demotion was that he hadn't worked much due to his late arrival in camp. How far could Gonsolin go Friday is not known. Two, three or perhaps four innings, I imagine.
Mitch White and Josiah Gray are possibilities as well. See how one does and take it a start at a time. Either would be making his big league debut, but both are stretched out Or Los Angeles could simply activate Kershaw, who has said he's making a quick recovery from his injury. More will be revealed. We'll have the story as soon as there is one.
Howard Cole has been writing about baseball on the internet since Y2K. Follow him on Twitter.
