Dodgers Team News

Dodgers News: Dave Roberts Implies Gavin Stone Will Take Dustin May’s Spot in Rotation

The Dodgers officially placed RHP Dustin May on the 15-day injured list on Thursday, and called up LHP Justin Bruihl and RHP Andre Jackson. While those moves will help the bullpen in the immediate, they don’t exactly solve the problem on Monday when May’s spot in the rotation comes back up.

On Wednesday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was asked about that spot and said the team didn’t yet know who would start in May’s place. On Thursday, though, he started to have an idea.



Roberts said that rookie RHP Gavin Stone “makes the most sense” to take May’s spot in the rotation, at least for now. Michael Grove, who was seen in the Dodgers clubhouse in St. Louis on Thursday, was just added to the taxi squad as extra bullpen coverage in case something happened, potentially with Noah Syndergaard’s ongoing blister.

It sure sounds like Stone is going to get the start on Monday, though, which is exactly what we expected.

Stone made one start at the major league level thus far, throwing four innings and allowing four earned runs against the Phillies. He admitted it wasn’t his best stuff, but he went right back to Triple-A to continue working.

The Dodgers probably wanted to give him a little more time in the minors to work, but with the injury to May, there’s no time like the present to get Stone more work at the MLB level.

As for Grove, it sounds like he’s back to being healthy, which is great news for the Dodgers.

He made three-and-a-half starts for the team and looked good outside of one start where he was under the weather. Over his last two starts, he went 8.2 innings, and allowed seven hits and three earned runs while striking out six.

Grove was already planning on joining the Dodgers this weekend even before May’s injury. He’s been throwing in extended spring games at Arizona, and threw a bullpen session there Wednesday morning.

We’ll see if Grove gets an opportunity this weekend, or if he ends up just hanging out on the taxi squad for the four games in St. Louis.

Finally, for those hoping to see RHP Bobby Miller up, he’s still not an option to join the big league rotation right now. However, Roberts was impressed with his strong Triple-A start on Wednesday night, his best of the 2023 season.

All in all, it sounds like Stone is going to get some more opportunities at the big league level with May out. Hopefully he makes the most of them.

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Noah Camras

Noah is an Editor for Dodgers Nation. He graduated from USC in 2022 with a B.A. in Journalism and minor in Sports Media Studies. He's been a Dodger fan his whole life, and his all-time favorite Dodgers are Matt Kemp and Russell Martin.

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