Dodgers lose remarkable 15th pitcher to injury as another reliever goes down

At this point, Dodgers pitchers going down with injury has become more of a 'when' than an 'if.' It became clear that they weren't going to get any luckier with pitching injuries this season as early as spring training, when Tony Gonsolin, Michael Kopech, Evan Phillips, and Edgardo Henriquez all experienced setbacks. Kopech and Henriquez still haven't returned, and the Dodgers announced this week that Phillips will undergo Tommy John this week.

Now, a little over a third of the way into the season, the Dodgers have a whopping 15 pitchers on the IL. Luis García became unlucky No. 15 on Sunday, ahead of LA's series finale against the Yankees. The Dodgers brought up former Red Sox Noah Davis as García went onto the 15-day IL (retroactive to May 29) with an adductor strain.

12 out of 15 of those injured pitchers — including Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and a handful of rookies who were always going to start there given 2024 surgeries (River Ryan, Gavin Stone, Emmet Sheehan, and Kyle Hurt) — are on the 60-day IL.

The other three on the 15-day — Roki Sasaki, Kirby Yates, and now García — have murky timelines to return.

Luis García becomes the 15th pitcher to hit Dodgers' IL with an adductor strain

Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Dustin May staying healthy has been almost more surprising than all of the injuries. The Dodgers have adjusted slightly — Yamamoto pitched every six days in May instead of every seven — but it's no surprise that bullpen injuries are starting to crop up when the rotation has been without Snell since April 6, without Glasnow since April 28, Clayton Kershaw still hasn't pitched more than five innings since returning, and Roki Sasaki averaged 4 1/3 before he went on the 15-day.

The Dodgers have started to pick up bullpen arms on the waiver wire or through cash trades more recently, including former Reds closer Alexis Díaz, former Cardinals tech whiz Ryan Loutos, and DFA'ed veteran Chris Stratton. But they're bandaids, at best, and the Dodgers are probably going to be forced into a far more eventful trade deadline than they were hoping for.

There's an underlying issue here that clearly hasn't been addressed, though — why are Dodgers pitchers getting hurt at this clip, and how do they stop it? The Dodgers clearly don't have any answers for either of those questions, and nothing's going to change until they figure it out.