Dodgers’ Tyler Glasnow ‘highly unlikely’ to pitch again in 2024

Major League Baseball

Published Sep. 14, 2024 6:37 p.m. ET

The Los Angeles Dodgers are bracing to be without their ace for the remainder of the season.

Tyler Glasnow has a sprained elbow in his pitching arm and he’s “highly unlikely” to pitch again in 2024, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters on Saturday.

“It’s a big blow,” Roberts said. “Looking at what he meant for our ballclub, what he’s done for us, what we expected him to do, certainly there’s going to be a cost.”

The right-handed star pitcher was working his way back to the Dodgers’ rotation before he suffered his most recent setback Friday. After pitching a simulated game, Glasnow told the team he was feeling discomfort around his right elbow. The simulated game was one of the hurdles that Glasnow had to clear in order to return before he likely began a rehab assignment.

Now, Glasnow’s focus might be working toward getting ready for the 2025 season. The 31-year-old has been sidelined since Aug. 11, when the Dodgers placed him on the injured list due to elbow tendinitis. While the Dodgers will most likely make the playoffs, there are only two weeks left in the MLB regular season and ramping up to pitch during the postseason would be difficult.

Glasnow was in the midst of arguably the best season of his career in his first year with the Dodgers. He was 9-6 with a 3.49 ERA in 22 starts prior to the injury, living up to the five-year, $136.5 million extension he signed in December. However, the injuries that plagued his six-year tenure with the Tampa Bay Rays — including undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2021 — continued as he pitched a career-high 134 innings this season.

With his strong numbers in the opening months of the year, Glasnow earned his first All-Star nod and was set to play a major role in Los Angeles’ quest for a title. Instead, the season has likely ended on an all-too-familiar note for Glasnow.

“I feel bad for Tyler because he did everything to stay healthy and get back,” Roberts said. “It just wasn’t going to happen.”

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