{"id":163858,"date":"2025-07-09T18:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T18:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/163858\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T18:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T18:22:09","slug":"dodgers-transfer-michael-kopech-to-60-day-il","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/163858\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers Transfer Michael Kopech To 60-Day IL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Dodgers announced today that right-hander <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/glasnty01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tyler Glasnow<\/a> has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list, a move that was <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/2025\/07\/dodgers-to-activate-tyler-glasnow-on-wednesday.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">reported<\/a> a few days ago. Righty <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/diazal03.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Alexis D\u00edaz<\/a> was optioned to the minors to open an active roster spot and righty <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kopecmi01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Michael Kopech<\/a> was transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a bit of a worrisome development for Kopech. He was only placed on the 15-day IL on July 1st, retroactive to June 28th, due to right knee inflammation. At that time, both the pitcher himself and manager Dave Roberts downplayed the severity. \u201cI think we\u2019re all hopeful it will be on the shorter end of it,\u201d Roberts said last week, per <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Alden_Gonzalez\/status\/1940187742434205822\" rel=\"nofollow\">Alden Gonz\u00e1lez of ESPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Either that comment wasn\u2019t fully candid or something has changed since then, as this transfer now means that Kopech is ineligible to return until late August. The Dodgers haven\u2019t yet provided any specific information about how long they expect Kopech to be out but the transfer provides at least a best-case scenario.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s an unfortunate development for both Kopech and the Dodgers. He also started the season on the IL due to a shoulder impingement and missed more than two months. He was healthy long enough to give the Dodgers seven shutout innings before going back on the IL again.<\/p>\n<p>For the Dodgers, it\u2019s yet another in a long line of injuries. They\u2019ve been moving players on and off the IL all throughout the year, particularly on the pitching side. Even with Glasnow coming off the shelf today, they still have 11 arms on the IL. The bullpen is without Kopech, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/phillev01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Evan Phillips<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/treinbl01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Blake Treinen<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gratebr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Brusdar Graterol<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/grovemi01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-07-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Michael Grove<\/a>. Phillips and Grove had major surgeries and won\u2019t be coming back this year.<\/p>\n<p>If Kopech can return in August or September, then he could still be a part of the club\u2019s bullpen down the stretch and into the postseason. Regardless, the Dodgers figure to add some arms prior to the deadline. All contending clubs look for bullpen additions at this time of year and the Dodgers should be even more motivated by their mounting injuries.<\/p>\n<p>For Kopech personally, he\u2019s an impending free agent. He could still return and go into the open market with some juice, but it\u2019s been a less than ideal platform season so far. He previously struggled to establish himself as a starter with the White Sox, partially due to injuries, but a recent bullpen move seemed to be a good transition for him.<\/p>\n<p>He tossed 43 2\/3 innings out of Chicago\u2019s bullpen last year. The 4.74 ERA wasn\u2019t great, nor was the 12.6% walk rate, but he struck out 30.9% of batters faced. He reached another level after getting traded to the Dodgers, tossing 24 innings with a 1.13 ERA. His 33% strikeout rate and 11.4% walk rate were both slight improvements, though he also benefited from a .167 batting average on balls in play and 90.9% strand rate. Nonetheless, he played a key role in the playoffs, tossing nine innings with three earned runs allowed as the Dodgers went on to win it all.<\/p>\n<p>Another full season as a relief weapon would have positioned him for a nice market this winter. Now, however, it\u2019s possible the ongoing health problems will tamp down his earning power. As mentioned, he seemingly still has time to get healthy and finish strong but his injury history list continues to run long. He missed the 2019 season due to Tommy John surgery and has since spent time on the IL due to a strained left hamstring, left knee strain, right shoulder inflammation and right knee inflammation. He managed to avoid the IL last year while working as a reliever but now has been bit by the injury bug a few times here in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dodgers announced today that right-hander Tyler Glasnow has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list, a move&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1096,5,1149,4,786],"class_list":{"0":"post-163858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-alexis-diaz","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-michael-kopech","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-tyler-glasnow"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114824672029881678","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}