LOS ANGELES — Add Gavin Stone to the long list of Dodgers pitchers who required surgery and will miss a season.
Stone underwent shoulder surgery earlier this week. The procedure was performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache and Stone is not expected to pitch in 2025.
No details of the surgery were given but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Dr. ElAttrache “identified a lot of stuff that was going on in the shoulder.”
After struggling in brief major-league time in 2023, Stone led the Dodgers in starts (25), wins and innings pitched (140⅓) in 2024 while going 11-5 with a 3.53 ERA. The rookie right-hander threw the Dodgers’ only complete-game shutout of the season on June 26 against the Chicago White Sox.
That effort seemed to take something out of Stone (who will turn 26 next week). He was 2-3 with a 4.91 ERA in 10 starts after the complete game and went on the injured list at the start of September with shoulder issues.
INJURY UPDATES
First baseman Freddie Freeman (ankle) and infielder Miguel Rojas (adductor strain) are both expected to be on the active roster for the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets, which begins Sunday night at Dodger Stadium.
Rojas went through a full workout with the team on Saturday. Even if he is on the active roster, though, Tommy Edman could move to shortstop, allowing Roberts to get Kiké Hernandez into the lineup in center field.
Freeman will continue to be a day-to-day decision during the NLCS, Roberts indicated.
“My goal is, and I think Freddie would say the same thing, would be to play every game,” Roberts said. “We have a day game after a night game. He feels better today than he did yesterday. So I think that’s encouraging.
“I think my message to him is ‘let’s not get too far ahead of things and let’s worry about the day at hand.’ So right now I feel very confident that he’ll be in there tomorrow (Game 1) and we’ll kind of see where that goes.”
Roberts said left-hander Alex Vesia suffered an intercostal injury during Game 5 of the NL Division Series against the San Diego Padres and it is “highly unlikely” he will be on the NLCS roster. Brent Honeywell Jr. is the most likely replacement for Vesia.
OHTANI SLUMP
After making a big bang in his postseason debut – a three-run home run and an RBI single in his first three at-bats – Shohei Ohtani went 2 for 17 with 10 strikeouts in the rest of the NLDS. He struck out three times in four at-bats in Game 5, two of those against Padres starter Yu Darvish who Ohtani has called his “childhood hero.”
“Well, I’ll tell you this – I don’t know what it’s like facing my childhood hero or idol,” Roberts said. “Obviously that’s a better question for Shohei as far as the emotions behind that. I’m sure something might have bled into (his at-bats) … because he did chase more than he has. So I don’t know if it was the Darvish factor.
“So suffice to say, I’m happy that we’ve rid ourselves of Yu Darvish and we can sort of move forward. … I think he’s just been more outside the hitting zone than he has in the last, call it, six to eight weeks.”
The Dodgers won’t face Darvish again. But they will face another Japanese pitcher. Kodai Senga is scheduled to start Game 1 for the Mets. Ohtani faced Senga once in MLB while playing for the Angels in 2023. He walked twice and doubled.
“I don’t think any pitcher would reveal how we’re going to approach an opposing hitter at this point,” Senga said Saturday when asked how he would approach Ohtani.
Senga was also asked if his matchup with Ohtani would create a lot of excitement in Japan.
“I’m not in Japan, so I’m not sure,” he said to laughter.