The Absurd Depth of the Dodgers Is Clear Right Now
Despite having 14 pitchers on the IL and a constantly shifting lineup, the Los Angeles Dodgers still boast one of baseball’s best records.
If you had laid out the injury report, underwhelming starts, and midseason roster moves for the 2025 Los Angeles Dodgers before Opening Day, most people would’ve expected the team to be off to a slower start.
Instead, 50 games into the season, the Dodgers sit with one of MLB’s best records and run differentials — an incredible testament to the absurd depth this organization continues to flaunt.
A Mass Unit on the Mound
Let’s start with the elephant in the room: As of Thursday, May 22, the Dodgers currently have 14 pitchers on the injured list. That includes:
Three frontline starters: Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and Roki Sasaki.
Four key young arms: Kyle Hurt, Emmet Sheehan, River Ryan, and Gavin Stone.
Their top five highest leverage right-handed relievers: Evan Phillips, Blake Treinen, Brusdar Graterol, Kirby Yates, and Michael Kopech.
Multi-inning arms and depth pieces: Michael Grove, Edgardo Henriquez.
Some of these names haven’t pitched at all in 2025, and many are on the 60-day IL. With Snell, Glasnow, and Sasaki, we’re talking about guys who were expected to anchor the rotation.
Snell has made two starts — back on March 27 and April 2 — and has since been sidelined with a shoulder issue. To make matters worse, within the last week, the Dodgers finally transferred him to the 60-day IL.
Glasnow (dealing with a similar shoulder injury to Snell) at least threw from flat ground within the last week and could return in June.
Glasnow has thrown just 18 innings over five starts this season to the tune of a 4.50 ERA. He last appeared on April 27 against the Pittsburgh Pirates, when he left with injury warming up in the second inning.
Sasaki made eight starts to begin the season, but his command was erratic and his velocity progressively cratered, as he compiled a 4.72 ERA and a 1.49 WHIP. Sasaki currently sits on the 15-day IL, but manager Dave Roberts reported that he will be shut down from throwing for a while.
As far as the bullpen goes, Kopech and Graterol have yet to pitch in 2025.
The 38-year-old Yates has been mostly available, appearing in 22 games, but he has pitched to a 4.34 ERA and just went down with a hamstring issue last weekend.
Phillips came back from injury in late April, only to be shut down again in early May after seven appearances, following an MRI that revealed inflammation in his elbow.
Treinen just started playing catch again but is currently sitting on the 60-day IL and hasn’t pitched since making his eighth appearance of the season back on April 13.
The Dodgers tried to give the once prized prospect Bobby Miller another chance early in the season at home against the struggling Colorado Rockies, but Miller struggled himself. He pitched three innings while surrendering six runs. He was sent back to the minors immediately after the outing.
Yet, here the Dodgers are, still thriving.
Patchwork Pitching
The current rotation looks like this: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, Clayton Kershaw, and Landon Knack.
Yamamoto has been elite, pitching to a 1.86 ERA through 10 starts. Gonsolin made his season debut on April 30 (his first action since August 18, 2023) and has made four starts, pitching to a 4.05 ERA in 20 innings. May has been available and consistent, making nine starts since April 1. Kershaw just made his season debut, and Knack is sitting on a 6.17 ERA.
That’s hardly a group you’d expect to power a division leader, especially in the hyper-competitive National League West, which currently has four teams above .500 – all vying for playoff contention.
The bullpen is even more of a mash-up.
The current relief corps includes: Closer Tanner Scott (2.42 ERA, but four blown saves), lefties Anthony Banda, Alex Vesia, and rookie Jack Dreyer, righties Ben Casparius, Matt Sauer, Luis Garcia (38 years old), and Lou Trivino – who joined after a 5.84 ERA stint with the Giants.
This isn’t a dominant group by any means, but they’ve done just enough to hold leads while the offense carries the load.
The Offense Hasn’t Been at Full Strength All Year Either
This lineup has seen turbulence, too. Core pieces have missed chunks of games at different times. Freddie Freeman has missed 10 games, Teoscar Hernández has missed 14, and Tommy Edman has missed 16.
Mookie Betts lost 10–15 pounds due to an illness just before Opening Day and didn’t travel to Japan. Chris Taylor and Austin Barnes, two longtime clubhouse leaders, have already been designated for assignment.
The Offensive Backbone
Today, the Dodgers possess a fully-healthy (or at least fully-active) lineup, which has been enough to keep them afloat and then some.
The Dodgers currently lead MLB in team batting average (.267); rank second in OBP (.343), slugging percentage (.471), and OPS (.813); own an MLB-best OPS at home (.860); and rank second in home runs (81).
That’s without much help from Michael Conforto, who has been one of the league’s least productive regulars with an OPS under .600 and a -0.8 WAR. Or Max Muncy, who has just three home runs and an OPS below .700.
The star power is carrying, yes — Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman are both among the best hitters in the sport— but so are the unexpected contributors.
Andy Pages, who looked lost in April, now boasts a WAR over 2.0, hitting for both average and power while flashing elite defense and arm strength.
Enrique Hernández filled in admirably at first base for Freeman and remains a crucial piece with his defensive versatility and slugging against left-handed pitching.
Rookie Hyeseong Kim has been a revelation in his first couple of weeks, showing elite speed, defensive versatility, instincts, and terrific bat-to-ball skills.
Dalton Rushing, the exciting catching prospect, just got called up and is now sharing duties with Will Smith.
In total, the positional group is loaded with Swiss Army Knife types who can move around the diamond, giving manager Dave Roberts the flexibility to withstand more injuries than any team should reasonably endure.
Can It Last?
At some point, the sheer number of injuries — particularly on the pitching side — has to matter. The Dodgers can’t lose this many arms and keep winning forever…right?
But it’s hard to bet against the Dodgers. They have the farm system and depth to support their stars or even add at the deadline . And they have the track record, thanks to Andrew Friedman’s team-building, to weather just about any storm.
People love to say the Dodgers “buy wins.” But what they’ve proven, once again, is that their true advantage is depth, and it’s built from every direction: scouting, player development, international signings, savvy trades, and, yes, big checks.
Right now, that depth is being tested like never before.
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