Dodgers fans aren’t even surprised at latest devastating Brusdar Graterol update

At some point, the Brusdar Graterol injury carousel is one that just becomes an expectation rather than a surprise. That point is here, and has been for some time. 

According to The Athletic's Fabian Ardaya, Graterol was pulled from his rehab assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City after his back flared up during an outing, and it’s now been announced that he’ll have surgery and might (probably will) miss the whole season. The velocity was already down in his last appearance. Now the timeline, which was never great to begin with, isn’t exactly hopeful.

The crazy thing is that Los Angeles Dodgers fans saw the news and couldn’t do anything else but shrug. That’s not a reaction of callousness. It’s just conditioning after years of this.

Brusdar Gratereol’s injury history makes Dodgers latest setback impossible to ignore

Since being acquired by the Dodgers, Graterol had become increasingly important in LA's bullpen. And in 2023, he fully emerged as a high-leverage option, posting a 1.20 ERA in 68 appearances. That version of Graterol looked like a fixture, someone you could build around. And then, almost as predictably as water being wet, the injuries came back.

He was on the injured list five different times for elbow or shoulder troubles before finally undergoing surgery to repair the labrum in his right shoulder. He pitched just 7.1 innings in 2024 and began 2025 on the 60-day injured list. He never progressed to even a minor league rehab appearance before Dodgers president Andrew Friedman confirmed he would not be back that year.

Coming into 2026, the thought process had to be (and was) that anything Graterol gave you was gravy. At the very beginning of spring games, Dave Roberts described his situation as a “holding pattern,” which isn’t a setback, but it’s also not progress.

Graterol began a rehab assignment at Triple-A Oklahoma City in early May, which was his first game action at any level since the 2024 World Series. There was something almost hopeful about it. He'd lost 20 pounds in the offseason, said he felt great, talked about coming back stronger. And for a few weeks, it felt like it might actually stick.

But after four appearances, Graterol's velocity began dropping. His sinker was down nearly four mph from earlier outings, and the back flare-up followed shortly after. When asked directly whether surgery was a possibility, Roberts answered simply: "Potentially. We've got to work through that." Well, we know how that’s turned out.

To his credit, Graterol isn't giving up. After the setback, he posted a message on social media: "Baseball is not easy. But it's no reason to give up." Hard to argue with that. And nobody's rooting against the guy. But at some point, the organization has to grapple with what this actually is. This is, in all likelihood, the final chapter of his time in LA. 

The bullpen will be fine. Tanner Scott has been mostly excellent. Alex Vesia does what Alex Vesia does. Edwin Díaz is expected back in the second half. The Dodgers have enough.

But somewhere in the back of every Dodgers fan's head, there's still a flicker of what Graterol could have been for this team over the last few years, if only the body cooperated. It never quite did.

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