Dodgers Star Says He Was Only at 60 Percent Health During World Series Due to Injury

Maren Angus-Coombs | Mar 5, 2025

Oct 25, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts (30) relieves pitcher Michael Kopech (45) in the ninth inning against the New York Yankees during game one of the 2024 MLB World Series at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images / Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

The Major League Baseball season is already long, but add in a World Series run and it becomes even longer.

Players are determined to play through the pain to capture the title, and that's how October played out for Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Michael Kopech.

Kopech was acquired from the Chicago White Sox at the trade deadline and proved to be one of the most important pickups of the year considering the Dodgers only had three starting pitchers in the postseason. The team relied on the bullpen and Kopech recorded some of the team's most important outs during the World Series run.

However, Kopech was dealing with forearm inflammation.

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While he was tied for the lead with 10 postseason appearances, the right-hander revealed recently that he was only feeling 60 percent.

“I think a lot of people look at the results of what you’re putting out there as how you feel,” Kopech said to the LA Times.

“I was still able to throw 100 mph in the last days of the season, so that’s great,” Kopech added. “But it was a lot more effort to throw that hard, and it was a lot more intensity and masking things. I definitely wasn’t 100%. But … I was determined to figure it out.”

Kopech wasn't the only injured Dodger. The pitching staff was never fully healthy, and Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani, Max Muncy, Gavin Lux, and Will Smith all dealt with their own ailments.

“We all wanted to win,” Muncy said. “But we were all going through something.”

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Whatever the Dodgers were going through, they leaned on each other to get through it. Once they came from behind in the National League Division Series to defeat the Padres, they were on a mission and weren't going to let anything get in their way.

“Baseball, it’s a battle of attrition,” manager Dave Roberts said. “You lose players and guys are playing banged up. [Especially] when we started to then go through October, there are going to be things that are ailing and you’re dealing with. But I’m not surprised they found a way to get through it.”

For more Dodgers news, head over to Dodgers on SI.