The Los Angeles Dodgers thought they were buying a workhorse when they handed Tyler Glasnow a five-year, $136.5 million deal. They are getting an injury report instead.
The reigning World Series champs moved Glasnow to the 60-day injured list on Saturday and called up Nick Frasso to take his 40-man spot. That is not a procedural shuffle. That is the team admitting their right-hander is nowhere close to a baseball.
Glasnow has not pitched since May 6, when he left a start against the Astros at Daikin Park with back pain. Two days later he hit the 15-day IL. A month later, he is now staring down a return date no earlier than July, and Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic confirmed Glasnow is “not throwing at the moment.” For a pitcher with this medical history, “not throwing in early June” rarely cashes out as “back in early July.”
Here is the part Dodgers fans need to swallow. Glasnow has now been an All-Star exactly once in his career, in 2024, and he has never thrown 150 innings in a big league season. The Dodgers signed him knowing that. They paid the premium anyway because the upside, when healthy, is genuine top-of-the-rotation stuff. The bill keeps coming due.
He joins Blake Snell on the 60-day IL. Snell is still recovering from elbow surgery. That is a combined $322 million of high-end starting pitching watching games in street clothes.
The Dodgers are 41-23 anyway. They sit second in baseball behind only the Atlanta Braves and lead the NL West comfortably. The rotation is being held together by Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani, who is somehow still posting a comically low ERA across his 10 starts as a two-way player. That is not a long-term plan. That is a miracle hold.
Glasnow’s seven starts before the injury looked exactly like what L.A. paid for. He went 3-0 with a 2.72 ERA and a 0.83 WHIP. Vintage Glasnow. The problem is that vintage Glasnow only shows up in 90 to 120 inning chunks before something breaks.
The October math is what matters. The Dodgers do not need to win the regular season. They need three healthy starters in October. Right now they have Yamamoto, Ohtani on a soft pitch count, and a bullpen game. That is not a championship rotation. That is a survival plan.
Andrew Friedman has options. He can ride Roki Sasaki through whatever growing pains come with the workload. He can lean harder on bullpen days behind Justin Wrobleski and Bobby Miller. He can also pick up the phone in July. The trade market is going to have arms available. Tarik Skubal might be the most obvious one, with the Tigers fading into seller territory.
The Dodgers should be aggressive. Glasnow is not a trade deadline plan. He is a hope. Glasnow trying to ramp up in late July, get game speed in August, and pitch in October has happened maybe twice in baseball history without a setback. Pretending otherwise is how teams lose playoff series.
Los Angeles can win the NL again without Glasnow. They cannot win the World Series with a rotation built on prayer. Friedman knows it. The 60-day IL move says the front office does too.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
