Dodgers pitcher undergoes season-ending elbow surgery

The Dodgers announced that right-hander Emmet Sheehan underwent surgery on the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow Wednesday. They didn’t announced whether it was full Tommy John surgery or the internal brace alternative, but he’ll miss the remainder of the season regardless.

Sheehan, 24, was slated to compete for a rotation spot coming into this year. But in early March, he experienced some shoulder discomfort and general soreness, which led manager Dave Roberts to relay that Sheehan would be starting the season on the injured list. Although it was a shoulder injury that initially was the problem, when he was placed on the IL, his injury was described as forearm inflammation. He was transferred to the 60-day IL in late March when the club selected Nabil Crismatt to the roster.

In mid-April, he began throwing to live hitters but Roberts said that his arm “hasn’t been responding” the way team staff had hoped. The club hasn’t provided any details about Sheehan to the public in about a month, but it seems that a determination was made behind the scenes that he would require surgery.

It’s obviously an unfortunate blow for both Sheehan and the team. The righty made his major league debut last year age the age of 23. He tossed 60 1/3 innings for the Dodgers over 11 starts and two relief appearances. He allowed 4.92 earned runs per nine innings in that time, striking out 25.8% of batters faced while issuing walks at a 10.5% clip. He had been even better in the minors, with a 2.43 ERA in 2023 and a 2.91 mark the year prior. Given those strong minor league numbers and his youth, it would have been fair to think a step forward in the major leagues was forthcoming in 2024.

Instead, it will now go down as a lost season for Sheehan. If there’s one silver lining for him, it’s that he’ll stay on the 60-day injured list all season, collecting major league pay and service time. He will likely miss a portion of 2025 as well, depending on the nature of his surgery and the eventual progression of his rehab.

For the Dodgers, this will further add to the number of days missed by pitchers on their staff this year. Sheehan is one of 11 Dodgers pitchers currently on the injured list, joined by Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Kyle Hurt, Bobby Miller, Ryan Brasier, Connor Brogdon, Brusdar Graterol, Joe Kelly and Evan Phillips.

Some of those injuries were known coming into the year, as a few of those guys underwent significant surgeries last year. Still, it’s remarkable that the club hasn’t been hurt too much by all that talent that’s not currently on the roster. The Dodgers are 29-16 right now and have a 7.5-game lead in the National League West. Their pitching staff has a collective ERA of 3.16, which is third in the league, behind only the Red Sox and Yankees.

The starting staff currently consists of Tyler Glasnow, James Paxton, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Walker Buehler and Gavin Stone, but the club is also doing occasional bullpen games to give each pitcher five days off between outings. That’s led to guys like Ryan Yarbrough, Elieser Hernández and Michael Grove picking up bulk work here and there.

Sheehan’s surgery means he won’t be able to return later in the year for extra depth, so the Dodgers will be hoping some of the other 10 guys on the injured list are able to make it back to the club before the injury bug bites them again.