Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher River Ryan spoke with Dodgers Nation’s Doug McKain on Tuesday’s edition of Dodgers Dougout Live on YouTube and Facebook and discussed his road to recovery from Tommy John surgery, how close he was to pitching in the 2025 postseason, and how he worked to improve his pitching repertoire while sitting out an entire year of baseball.
As the Dodgers bullpen struggled with injuries and inconsistency in the weeks and months leading up to the postseason, many Dodgers fans were clamoring for the 27-year-old righty to make an early return to the Bigs in hopes of lifting up the embattled pitching staff.
Ryan said that it almost came to fruition.
“I know there was a lot of back and forth nearing the end of my rehab in Arizona to go back and pitch in the postseason,” Ryan said. “But my agent and the organization all came to the consensus of, ‘just have a normal offseason, there’s no reason to push it. Get yourself ready for 2026.’ And that’s what we decided to do.”
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The full offseason and rehab process has allowed the Dodgers’ No. 9 prospect to tweak his mechanics, lift ‘like an animal’ to add weight to his 6-foot-2 frame and ultimately get his body right.
“I was able to go back and kind of dissect some things and really tune in and tune up some things in my mechanics,” Ryan told McKain. “Coming into the end of ’25, I had all year to do a lot of shoulder strengthening. So I think that’s what the issue was in ’24. But now at my last like three or four live [at-bats], I was sitting like 98 to 100 [mph] the whole time and I was bouncing back great. So, yeah, my fastball’s in a really, really good spot. I’m really happy with it.”
Ryan also teased a surprise new pitch he’s been working on in the offseason, although he was mum about the details.
“I’m not going to reveal the pitch. I want to kind of surprise people next year,” he said. “I think that’s seven now that I can throw, and I’m just really, really excited to be able to get out there and showcase all of them.”
He was willing to divulge that the new pitch was not a knuckleball. “That’s one thing I cannot do is throw a knuckleball. It’s bad.”
River Ryan’s Recovery, Expectations for 2026
Ryan was one of the Dodgers’ top prospects heading into the 2024 season and was thrust into a starting role as the team’s rotation was decimated by injuries. He appeared in four games in 2024, all starts, and logged a 1.33 ERA while recording a single win before being shut down for the year with an elbow injury that later required surgery to repair a torn UCL.
Unlike 2024, there are far fewer opportunities for the right-hander to crack the starting rotation with entrenched starters in Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and, of course, Shohei Ohtani. Ryan will likely compete for the fifth spot in the starting pitching rotation with the likes of Emmet Sheehan, Justin Wrobleski, Landon Knack or Ben Casparius, as well as 2024 starter Gavin Stone—himself battling back from shoulder surgery that sidelined him all of last season.
Ryan says he is up for the challenge but just grateful for the opportunity either way.
“We have a lot of great, great starting pitchers. But I’m just going to do what they tell me to do. It’s a blessing just to be able to play Major League Baseball,” he said. “I definitely try not to worry about if I’m going to be a No. 1 starter or No. 5 starter. It just honestly has no effect as long as I’m just doing what I can do and controlling what I can control.”
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Ryan was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 11th round of the 2021 MLB Amateur Draft after a standout career as a two-way player at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. His multi-positional athleticism and versatility has made him a favorite prospect among Dodgers fans, the organization and rival teams; his name has been floated as a potential inclusion in trade discussions.
Regardless of what the future holds, the Dodgers front office and coaching staff has made it clear that they have high hopes for the North Carolina native and are happy to take things slow in order for him to reach his full potential.
To watch Doug’s full talk with River Ryan, including his plans for a new walkout song, predicting Miguel Rojas’ game-tying home run in Game 7 of the World Series, and whether he plans on changing his jersey number, click here.
Photo Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports
