Dodgers General Manager Isn’t Worried About Tyler Glasnow’s Durability in 2024
With the addition of starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow, the Dodgers now have one of the better pitchers in all of baseball. He gives the team a true ace-level starter who can headline a pitching staff.
While getting Glasnow is a huge move for the Dodgers, his past injury issues are often mentioned in the same breath as his talent. Glasnow hasn’t thrown more than 156 innings in any of his 12 professional seasons. As a major leaguer, he’s missed time with injuries to his elbow, oblique, forearm and shoulder.
The Dodgers’ starting rotation is short on workhorse veterans, long on pitchers with little experience and recent injury histories. It would only help if Glasnow can set a new career high innings total in 2024. For his part, Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said he isn’t worried about Glasnow’s usage.
“I think a lot of it is more about betting on how he’s feeling, how good of an athlete he is, and our performance and medical group feeling like he’s in a good position to kind of take off,” Gomes said. “We’ve seen this type of stuff with pitchers in the past where, you know, they get to a point and they start to understand their bodies. For whatever reason, things leading up to it, you have hiccups in the ability to take down 160-plus innings, and then out of nowhere they take off.”
Per Brandon Gomes via The OC Register
It seems the Dodgers aren’t too worried about the ailments that have cropped up during Glasnow’s career. No trade is completed without a thorough review of each player’s medical files, so this is a good sign. Glasnow’s potential for future injury is no secret to the Dodgers. They were still optimistic enough about his healthy to trade Ryan Pepiot, a 26-year-old starting pitcher with promise, in exchange for Glasnow and sign the 30-year-old to a long-term extension.
Glasnow even spoke about his recent injuries, signaling that they’ve all stemmed from one incident. He believes that the issues are behind him, and is looking forward to some healthy seasons with the Dodgers.
“The first time it happened was 2019. That was the first time I injured the UCL and it was just the same injury (in 2020 and 2021). … Finally, I got it fixed and ever since Tommy John (surgery), that’s felt amazing.”
Tyler Glasnow via The OC Register
Glasnow’s procedure, commonly known as an InternalBrace repair, requires a shorter recovery period than the typical Tommy John, and comes with a similar expectation for post-surgical performance.
“It’s the new Tommy John with that synthetic collagen band,” Glasnow said. “In my mind I have twice the strength.”
Injury expert Will Carroll wrote about what the Dodgers might expect now that Glasnow is more than two years removed from the procedure:
That surgery, known to be an InternalBrace repair, could be a key here. The revision rate is significantly lower, though that ongoing work by Dr. Jeff Dugas was focused on lower-level patients. If it makes Glasnow more durable, even after the standard “honeymoon” period, this trade and extension could be a huge upgrade for the team.
Will Carroll via Substack
Photo Credit: Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports
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