Dave Roberts Says Dodgers All-Star Starting Pitcher Will Move to Bullpen 'At Some Point'

The last few weeks haven't been pretty for the Los Angeles Dodgers, with the team struggling to find any consistency out on the field.

The Dodgers have seen a fairly sizeable lead in the National League West dwindle slightly, with the club now having to fight to avoid playing in the wild-card round. Both the offense and pitching haven't been able to sustain consistency, and it's caused all sorts of problems.

Injuries have also hit the Dodgers hard, with the team missing both Will Smith and Dalton Rushing behind the plate. Within the pitching staff, multiple starting pitchers remain out, and the Dodgers just lost another All-Star in Justin Wrobleski.

Wrobleski was placed on the 15-day injured list with left forearm inflammation. The left-hander has struggled since the All-Star break, and the injury will now give him some extra time off.

Before the team announced Wrobleski's injury, manager Dave Roberts revealed that the left-hander would be moving to the bullpen "at some point." Given his injury, it's possible he's made his last start this season, and will rejoin the bullpen as soon as it's back sometime in September.

“At some point in time he’s gonna go to the ‘pen anyway, because of the guys that we have coming back," Roberts said.

The Dodgers recently got Blake Snell back into the rotation, and the team is expecting both Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani to rejoin in the coming weeks. This won't leave room for Wrobleski, and he may be better served as a relief pitcher.

Wrobleski, a first-time All-Star this season, has recorded a 3.56 ERA on the year. He's also had a heavy workload this year, already reaching his career-high in inning at 126.1.

"It's not something that he's ever going to make an excuse for," Roberts said. "But I do think that it's smart for us as an organization to take that load off a little bit from him."

Over his last three starts in August, Wrobleski has a 9.22 ERA, giving up 14 runs in 13.2 innings. The lefty allowed seven home runs this month.

When Will Justin Wrobleski Return?

Even with the injury, the Dodgers don't seem overly concerned about Wrobleski. Roberts said that he's hopeful that the left-hander's IL stint will be "short-lived".

Wrobleski has remained consistent in saying that fatigue isn't a problem for him. In his last start over the weekend against the Milwaukee Brewers, the left-hander saw his fastball average 96 mph, which was up 1.5 mph from his season average.

“I think today I kind of figured something out a little bit,” Wrobleski said at the time. “With my delivery and with everything, I feel like I’m in a good spot moving forward, as odd as that sounds.”

When Wrobleski does come back, he will reprise his bullpen role, which worked well in the postseason last year. The lefty fired a 0.00 ERA over four appearances, even pitching in Game 7 of the World Series.

Adding Wrobleski to the bullpen should help take some of the burden off a taxed relief staff, giving the Dodgers more flexibility down the stretch.

Exactly when that happens remains to be seen. Since he'll be going into the bullpen, though, he won't need to be fully built up.

Add us as a preferred source on Google