There are 14 Dodgers pitchers on the injured list right now — technically 15, if you could split Shohei Ohtani in two and put half of him on the IL. Yes, modern pitching puts a strain on arms across the majors. Yes, the White Sox and Mets have 12 injured pitchers each right now. But most teams are averaging five at the moment, so 15? That’s a pretty big difference.

For Dodgers fans, it’s a familiar feeling. But why? What’s going on in L.A. that’s leading to this many bum arms?

“There’s probably some unquantifiable stress there that we’re not, as an industry, just haven’t quite grasped yet,” pitching coach Mark Prior said in May, per MLB.com.

That’s fair, but we want more. Here are two major factors in the Dodgers’ high injury rate and two solutions in the works.

Accepting the risk

Over recent seasons, the Dodgers have made a habit of bringing in pitchers with a history of injury and letting them turn into stars. Tyler Glasnow, Roki Sasaki, Brusdar Graterol, and Blake Treinen all had more than a few stamps on their injury passport before joining L.A., but the organization didn’t seem to mind, as Mike Axisa at CBS Sports points out.

Each of these pitchers has proven their worth over and over, and when you’re so comfortable with maintaining that “big risk, big reward” mentality, you have to be prepared to manage more of those risks than other teams do.

Recovering from the World Series

Making a World Series run doesn’t come without consequences. Players are playing at 110 percent and then some every day for weeks on end in the postseason, and it’s only natural that everyone might need extra recovery time.

“Sometimes you will see pitchers not as effective, sometimes they will get hurt,” said MLB insider Ken Rosenthal. “Blake Treinen was used heavily in the postseason, so it isn’t exactly a shock that he’s down for a little bit.”

Factor in the reality that the Dodgers have been pushing hard for another World Series win since 2020, and all of the recent injuries start to make a little more sense—there just hasn’t been a break in five years.

Building a foundation

Despite their penchant for new acquisitions, the Dodgers’ plan for keeping pitchers healthy starts in the minor leagues.

“We’re far from having the answer,” said general manager Brandon Gomes in a recent conversation with Jon Heyman at the New York Post. “But I know we’re continuing to push to get better at it … We should be pushing them and challenging them more.”

The key likely lies in replicating a bit of major-league pressure and intensity at the minor-league level. What might that look like? We’re still waiting on the powers that be to tell us.

Individualized pitching plans

Another part of the Dodgers’ strategy when it comes to decreasing pitching injuries involves a more individualized approach, MLB.com’s Sonja Chen reported. (To which I say, wait, they weren’t doing that before?) That means paying more attention to each pitcher’s history, what role they played in the past, and how their current role with the Dodgers is different.

Then there’s the recovery timeline. While everyone wants to be playing again ASAP, manager Dave Roberts cautioned against being too hasty.

“We’ve got to make sure we nail it in getting them back and making sure we’re not rushing them,” he said.

So if Ohtani doesn’t make it back to the mound before the All-Star break, it’s okay. It’ll be worth it to have him potentially available deep into another postseason run instead.