Dodgers’ Ryu on the Road to Recovery

Dodgers Hyun-jin Ryu is on the road to recovery and making progress at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Arizona.

Some good new on this Monday afternoon. Hyun-jin Ryu has reported for spring training at Camelback and apparently is pain free.

After missing nearly the entire 2015 season due to injuries it looked like Ryu is finally pain free. Last spring training, he felt some tightness in his back and the Dodgers agreed to shut him down for two weeks to give him some time to recover. What started with back tightness, escalated to a sore shoulder and forced the Dodgers to start the season with Ryu on the disabled list.

He was then placed on the 60 day DL where it was determined that he needed to have his left shoulder labrum repaired. He underwent surgery on May 21, 2015 and since then has been on the road to recovery.

In the past few days, it has been reported that Ryu is now pain free and throwing bullpen sessions.

Even though Ryu is pain free, the Dodgers do not want to rush his recovery and push him too hard since it has been almost a year since he appeared in a game. The staff wants to ensure he is healthy in the long run and not just in time for spring training.

He is still a question mark when it comes to the starting rotation, but if Ryu can pitch in a few spring training games early March, the Dodgers would feel better about adding him to the rotation.

However, I think even without Ryu in the rotation that the Dodgers will be ok. This offseason they added a lot of depth when it comes to starters. With the offseason additions, the Dodgers now have eight different possible starters in Clayton Kershaw, Scott Kazmir, Brett Anderson, Kenta Maeda, Alex Wood, Mike Bolsinger, Frankie Montas and Ryu. Even if Ryu does not make a full recovery in time for the season, the Dodgers have other options.

In a recent article with The Orange County Register, Alex Wood expressed that he believes he is still a starter and that he believes he earned the right to be a starter. With so many starting pitchers now, the Dodgers are going to have to move some down or others to the bullpen come opening day.

Either way, as spring training begins the Dodgers will take a good hard look at their starters in order to finalize the rotation.

Ken Gurnick tweeted earlier today to say that Ryu threw a bullpen session in front of Dave Roberts and Andrew Friedman with no discomfort at all.

Right now it is all about narrowing down the starting pitchers in order to form a rotation, but as the Dodgers have learned the past few seasons, you just never know with starting pitching. Adding a lot of depth to the rotation this offseason will greatly benefit the Dodgers down the line.