Sunday, June 16, 2024
Copyrighted by Sarah Morris, 2024
The Los Angeles Dodgers received bad news on both Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Mookie Betts. Both important players will be out for a while. If the Dodgers don’t survive this difficult period with an above .500 record without Yamamoto and Betts, they don’t belong in the playoffs.
Before Sunday’s game, the Dodgers placed Yamamoto on the IL. During the game, the Dodgers received the results of the testing on Yamamoto’s arm. He has a strained rotator cuff. While the injury doesn’t need surgery, he will need time to heal before he can resume throwing. If everything goes well, the Dodgers might see Yamamoto in August. If Yamamoto doesn’t recover well, he might be out for the season.
Yamamoto has adapted well to the American major leagues. He has 6 wins and two losses with a 2.92 ERA and 84 strikeouts. The Dodgers know Yamamoto will have good command and Gold Glove-caliber defense. He has been more than anyone could imagine. He is popular with his teammates.
Some baseball-knowledgeable people could say the start against the New York Yankees was a mistake for Yamamoto. On the biggest stage of his young major league career, Yamamoto performed expertly, holding the powerful Yankees scoreless for seven innings, but he threw harder than ever in his major league career.
After the start against the Yankees, Yamamoto experienced soreness in the right triceps. The Dodgers and his agent decided to push his next start back for two days. On Saturday night at Dodger Stadium against the Kansas City Royals, Yamamoto was brilliant for two innings, and then, Yamamoto’s triceps began barking.
Yamamoto is the latest pitcher to go on the IL after striving for excellence. Teams are prizing high velocity instead of longevity in games. They want a dominant starter instead of a satisfactory starter who would go at least seven innings. With the new invention of the pitch clock, the starters cannot pace themselves like before. Major League Baseball must figure out how to protect their valuable pitchers, especially their starters.
During the seventh inning in Sunday afternoon’s game against the Kansas City Royals, a 98-mile-per-hour fastball struck Mookie Betts’ left hand and broke it. This is an incredible blow for the Dodgers and Betts who was having an MVP-caliber season despite enduring a difficult position change.
Since spring training when the Dodgers asked Betts to move to shortstop, he has worked very hard before every game. Of course, he has had growing pains at shortstop, arguably the most demanding position on the diamond, except for catcher. However, Betts’ defense has been magnificent since the series in Pittsburgh.
Offensively, the Dodgers will miss their leadoff hitter. If Betts contributes to the final score, the Dodgers usually win. If he doesn’t, the Dodgers usually lose. After a remarkable April, he has cooled down offensively. Betts has a .310 batting average with 10 home runs, 40 RBI, and a .892 OPS. With Betts out of the lineup for a significant amount of time, the Dodgers will have a more difficult time scoring runs than they have been.
Shohei Ohtani probably will hit leadoff in Betts’ absence. He will do great there, but the Dodgers have a problem with a top-heavy lineup even with Betts. According to Dave Roberts, Miguel Rojas and Kiké Hernández will share time at shortstop. Miguel Vargas will be promoted to play left field against left-handed pitchers.
The Dodgers are without both Betts and Max Muncy for a significant amount of time. This will make their offense more inconsistent. If the Dodgers can score enough to win, they will have an above .500 winning percentage. Both Rojas and Hernández will be good defensive shortstops. The Dodgers have enough starting pitching to survive without Yamamoto for some time, particularly when Clayton Kershaw begins his rehabilitation assignment this week to build up sufficient arm strength.
