SEATTLE — When the Dodgers traded for Brock Stewart at the trade deadline, they knew he came with some risk.
But on Friday, their worst-case scenario was realized.
Stewart will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery, manager Dave Roberts announced, leaving the Dodgers without the only significant deadline addition they made to bolster their struggling bullpen.
Although the Dodgers have been managing several injury concerns — from Will Smith’s fractured hand, to Tommy Edman’s sore ankle, to leg bruises that Max Muncy revealed on Friday he has been dealing with — Stewart’s status had become among the most alarming.
Even after completing a minor-league rehab stint for a shoulder problem that had kept him out since early August, he continued to feel residual soreness.
After meeting with head team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache this week, Stewart and the team decided surgery would be best. According to general manager Brandon Gomes, the 33-year-old is having a debridement procedure that should allow him to pitch the “majority” of next season, when he will still be under Dodgers control.
But for this October, the club will have to proceed without him.
“We had a lot of conversations with Brock, and he was like, ‘Hey, I want to help this team in any way possible,’” Gomes said. “But watching him throw and just having the conversations with him, there was still something that was just bothering him. As much as we would love to have him right now, we don’t want to put his long-term health at risk.”
Shoulder problems are nothing new for Stewart. Last season, he made just 16 appearances with the Minnesota Twins before undergoing arthroscopic shoulder surgery in August.
While this latest injury is not believed to be directly related to last year’s issue, Gomes did acknowledge that “any time you’re taking on a pitcher, we understand that there are risks.”
It’s not that the Dodgers overpaid for Stewart, giving up only former prospect James Outman in their deadline deal with the Twins. But, by not adding a bigger name in a bullpen that had been slumping even before the deadline (and has further spiraled in the two months since), the Dodgers put a lot of eggs in the right-hander’s basket. He was supposed to give the unit some experienced stability. Now, he leaves yet another hole to fill.
Without Stewart, the Dodgers’ right-handed relief hierarchy is somewhat unclear. They still have longtime stalwart Blake Treinen, but he has posted a career-worst 5.47 ERA and dealt with first-half arm troubles. Hard-throwing rookie Edgardo Henriquez has a 2.50 ERA in 21 appearances, but still has just 21⅓ career innings in the big leagues. And then there’s Roki Sasaki, the rookie Japanese phenom who returned from a nearly five-month shoulder injury with an auspicious inning out of the bullpen this week.
Another name that could enter the mix: Starting pitcher Emmet Sheehan, who was scheduled to pitch Friday’s series-opener against the Seattle Mariners but will likely be shifted to a multi-inning relief role out of the bullpen come the postseason.
In any event, however, Stewart’s absence will still hurt. What the Dodgers hoped would be a high-upside play, given his 2.38 ERA with the Twins this season, has instead become yet another bullpen letdown.
But what they came away with — right-handed relievers Brock Stewart and Paul Gervase to bolster the bullpen, and versatile outfielder Alex Call to round out the lineup — are the kind of moves that “just raises the floor for our ballclub,” manager Dave Roberts said Friday.
“I feel we did get better,” Roberts said, before echoing the front office’s hope that the Dodgers’ biggest improvements over the final two months of the season come from the star-studded, but underperforming, core they already have in place.
“I think we’ve got a pretty dang good team. I think if you look at it from the offensive side, as far as our guys, they’ll be the first to tell you they’ve got to perform better and more consistently. That’s something that we’re all counting on … I love our club. I really do. Now it’s up to all of us to go out there and do our jobs.”
The job for the Dodgers’ two biggest acquisitions, Stewart and Call, will be clear from the get-go.
Stewart, a former Dodgers swingman from 2016 to 2019, has reinvented himself in the second half of his career. Unlike his first stint in Los Angeles, when he threw in the low 90s and was a fringe long reliever on the roster, Stewart is now a higher-leverage relief option, with a mid-to-upper 90s fastball and swing-and-miss sweeper he has used to dominate right-handed hitters this season.
“At the end [of his first Dodgers stint], he lost the velocity and was trying to figure out if he could hang on and who he was at that point,” Roberts recalled. “Obviously, he’s put in a ton of work to sort of find himself again. He’s had nothing but success. I’m excited to see this version of him. He certainly shouldn’t lack for confidence.”
Stewart won’t fix the Dodgers’ ninth-inning problems — with their closer role up in the air ever since struggling offseason signing Tanner Scott went on the injured list with an elbow injury — but could get some save situations “in the right situation,” Roberts said — for instance, if a run of right-handed hitters (who are batting just .104 with a .327. OPS against him this year) are up at the end of the game.
“I trust the guy, I trust the player, what he’s become,” Roberts said. “So for me, if the situation calls for it tonight and he’s in the ninth inning, I’ve got all the confidence.”
Gervase, a 6-foot-10 right-hander the Dodgers acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for catcher Hunter Feduccia as part of a three-team trade on Wednesday night, was also on the active roster Friday. He comes with just five previous career MLB appearances, but a deceptive delivery aided by his long-limbed extension on the mound.
“I don’t know a whole lot about him,” Roberts said. “I know he’s got a big arm. He’s got some extension, some rise, but I haven’t seen him.”
The arrival of Stewart and Gervase did coincide with yet another loss in the bullpen. Veteran right-hander Kirby Yates, another offseason signing who has disappointed with a 4.31 ERA this season, was placed on the injured list because of lingering discomfort in his pelvic and lower-back area. He went back to Los Angeles to get further testing.
“In the last, call it, two weeks, he hasn’t felt great,” Roberts said. “Hasn’t been injured, in his words, which is why he kept pitching and competing. But we flew him home this morning to look at the doctor and kind of get some tests to see if there’s something that’s kind of been aggravating him. Something’s just not right, exactly. So we’re trying to suss that out.”
In the lineup, Roberts said Call — a 30-year-old right-handed-hitting journeyman who found a niche with the Washington Nationals the last few seasons as an on-base threat capable of grinding out tough at-bats — would mix in at all three outfield spots.
“[He is] a tough, feisty hitter,” Roberts said. “I certainly see him playing versus left. But I think he’s pretty much a neutral guy. Slugs a little more against left, but gets on base against right. I’m going to try to keep him in there a couple times a week.”
Call said he wasn’t shocked to learn he had been traded on Thursday, and was excited by the “chance to compete in the playoffs and win a World Series” with a first-place Dodgers team.
“For me, I am going to grind out at-bats, put the ball in play, take my walks, make it tough on the pitcher,” said Call, who has hit .297 with the Nationals in 102 games over the last two seasons. “Just really make the [pitchers] work so that hopefully they’re tired when the top of the order comes back around or whatever.”
Roki Sasaki facing hitters
Internally, the Dodgers are hoping rookie Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki can also serve as a de facto late-season addition after missing the last several months with a shoulder injury.
And this week, the right-hander took a key step in his recovery process.
Sasaki faced hitters for the first time since getting hurt in a simulated inning this past week in Arizona, Roberts said, and is scheduled to throw two more simulated innings on Saturday.
The team has been targeting a late-August return for Sasaki, who had a 4.72 ERA in eight starts this season before going on the IL.
Before trade rumors heated up and dream scenarios were briefly envisioned, before the Dodgers were linked to a string of big names who all wound up anywhere but Los Angeles, the team’s front office foreshadowed what proved to be a rather straightforward, unremarkable trade deadline on Thursday afternoon.
“This group is really talented,” general manager Brandon Gomes said last week. “I would argue it’s better than the team that won the World Series last year.”
“It’s really about our internal guys, and the fact that these are veteran guys that have well-established watermarks,” echoed president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, amid a July slump that fueled deadline speculation about what the team would need.
“I think the fact that we see the work they put in, how much they care, just makes it easier to bet on.”
On Thursday, maintaining faith in their current group is exactly what the Dodgers did.
The team did address its two main needs ahead of MLB’s annual midseason trade deadline. In the bullpen, it reunited with right-handed veteran Brock Stewart in a trade with the Minnesota Twins. In the outfield, it added solid-hitting, defensively serviceable 30-year-old Alex Call in a deal with the Washington Nationals.
But compared with the flurry of blockbuster deals that reverberated around them in the National League — from a head-spinning seven-player shopping spree by the San Diego Padres, to a bullpen arms race between the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies — the Dodgers’ moves were mild, tame and certainly cost-conscientious.
They didn’t splurge for one of the several established closers that were dealt for sky-high prices throughout the league. They didn’t remake their lineup by landing someone such as Steven Kwan, or any other hitter with anything close to All-Star pedigree.
In fact, the Dodgers hardly gave up much at all, content to round out the margins of their roster while parting with little in the way of prospect capital.
High-A pitchers Eriq Swan and Sean Paul Liñan (the 16th- and 20th-ranked players in their farm system by MLB Pipeline) were shipped to Washington. But otherwise, the only other departures were 40-man roster players unlikely to factor much into the team’s late-season plans: James Outman, who went to Minnesota in exchange for Stewart; Dustin May, who was dealt to the Boston Red Sox for a prospect a few months before entering free agency; and minor league catcher Hunter Feduccia, who was part of a three-team deal late Wednesday night that netted the Dodgers two pitching prospects and a journeyman catcher.
The Dodgers’ James Outman (33) celebrates after hitting a three-run home run during a game against the Miami Marlins in May.
(Marta Lavandier / Associated Press)
Compared to last year — when the Dodgers added Jack Flaherty (their eventual Game 1 starter in the World Series), Tommy Edman (the eventual National League Championship Series MVP) and Michael Kopech (a key piece in a bullpen that carried the team to a World Series title) — it all felt rather anticlimactic.
Which, as the Dodgers’ top two executives had noted the week before, appeared to be perfectly fine by them.
In Stewart, the team got a lower-cost addition in what was an expensive seller’s reliever market.
The 33-year-old has only two career saves, and is unlikely to fix the Dodgers’ ninth-inning problems. But, he is having a strong statistical season with 14 holds and a 2.38 ERA, 14th-best in the American League among relievers with 30 innings. He will give the Dodgers a stout option against right-handed hitters, who have just a .104 average and .372 OPS against him. And he comes with familiarity in the organization, still thought highly of after starting his career with the Dodgers from 2016-2019 — back before he reinvented himself with a fastball that now sits in the mid-to-upper 90 mph range.
In Call, the Dodgers gave themselves more versatility in the outfield.
The right-handed hitter has appeared in just 277 career games over four MLB seasons with the Nationals and Cleveland Guardians.
But the former third-round draft pick is having a nice 2025 season, highlighted by a .274 batting average, .756 OPS and decent (if unspectacular) defensive grades at all three outfield positions.
While Call’s role wasn’t immediately clear, he could factor into a platoon with recently resurgent left-handed hitting outfielder Michael Conforto. He also gives the Dodgers another option in center field, specifically, which would allow Andy Pages to spend more time in a more naturally suited corner outfield spot.
For those Dodgers, the moves checked off their two big priorities: Adding another dependable right-handed reliever in the bullpen, and improving their defensive options in the outfield.
What was missing from the Dodgers’ deadline, however, was the kind of big splash so many other contenders reeled off this week. The Padres acquired Mason Miller, Ramon Laureano, and Ryan O’Hearn without sacrificing any key big-league pieces. The Mets added Tyler Rogers, Ryan Helsley and Gregory Soto to their already stout bullpen, while the Phillies upgraded theirs with the addition of Jhoan Durán.
Already this year, the rest of the NL was keeping pace with what was billed as a seemingly invincible Dodgers team. Suddenly, the competition looks that much stronger, not only for the club to defend its World Series, but even to preserve the narrow three-game lead it holds over the Padres in the NL West.
The Dodgers, however, see internal improvement as the key to the rest of the season.
Already, their pitching staff is getting healthy. Tyler Glasnow, Blake Treinen and (as of this coming Saturday) Blake Snell are all back from extended injuries. Michael Kopech, Brusdar Graterol, Tanner Scott and Roki Sasaki are also scheduled to return over the final two months.
Offensively, the club is confident that slumping stars Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Tesocar Hernández will get back on track, and that Max Muncy will provide a jolt in his return from injury next week. All that — coupled with the MVP-caliber play of Shohei Ohtani and Will Smith — they believe should yield a lineup capable of repeating a run to the World Series.
“It’s always tricky when you’re in the midst of a swoon in team performance, because in those moments you feel like we need everything,” Friedman acknowledged leading into the deadline, with the team enduring a 10-14 slide in July. “So for us, it’s about, all right, let’s look ahead to August, September. Let’s look at what our best-case scenario is. Let’s look at, if we have a few injuries here and there, what areas are we exposed? What areas do we feel like we have depth?”
Apparently, the Dodgers still liked what they already had, rolling the dice on their current group while other contenders stocked up all around them.
