Saturday provided the good news of Dodgers high-leverage relievers Kirby Yates and Michael Kopech returning from the injured list, but also the bad news of Tony Gonsolin going back on the injured list with right elbow discomfort.
Dave Roberts told reporters in St. Louis he was informed of Gonsolin’s elbow pain on Friday, and that the pitcher would be examined at some point. From Bill Plunkett at the Orange County Register:
“Obviously with a pitcher when there’s elbow discomfort, we didn’t see him making his next start. So it just seemed the logical thing, given where the pitching is, a guy that wasn’t going to make his next start to get him off line, give him a handful of days to not play catch,” Roberts said. “Hopefully the pain, the discomfort subsides and get him throwing again and see where it takes us.”
Ben Casparius has been indispensable to the Dodgers pitching staff, even with Saturday’s rough outing. The right-hander has only started once this season, yet ranks third among Dodgers pitchers in both innings pitched (40) and strikeouts (44). Michael Baumann at FanGraphs examined the fine start to the season by Casparius, and opined on how his bulk relief role could catch on:
I think this is going to be the next trendy thing in relief pitcher usage: the two-inning guy for the middle third of close games. It makes too much sense; starters don’t go deep in games anymore, and one-inning guys can be unreliable. There’s a need for a bridge pitcher, and that role gets the most out of guys like Casparius, who might lack the zip required to close but would also struggle to turn over a lineup more than once. A generation ago, that kind of pitcher could make a living as a spot starter, but not anymore.