Dodgers pitching injury woes continue as River Ryan heads to IL with forearm tightness

The Los Angeles Dodgers have lost another starting pitcher to injury. Rookie righty River Ryan exited Saturday night’s start against the Pittsburgh Pirates (LAD 4, PIT 1) after 4 2/3 innings and 56 pitches with forearm tightness, the team announced. Manager Dave Roberts said Ryan will be placed on the injured list and undergo testing Sunday.

“Hopefully we have some good news, and we’ll see,” Roberts said (via MLB.com). “Obviously, we’ve got to be careful with him. We’ll know more tomorrow. But obviously, when you see a guy go on his forearm, it’s always disconcerting.”

Ryan said he began to feel discomfort in his forearm in the third inning, but he was able to loosen it up with a massage gun between innings. It tightened back up on him in the fifth inning, and Roberts and the training staff removed Ryan from the game after they noticed him wincing. Ryan missed the first two months of this season with a sore shoulder.

Forearm tightness is a common symptom of elbow ligament trouble and often a precursor to Tommy John surgery, though not always. Ryan was in the rotation because the Dodgers have a full rotation on the injured list, plus several notable prospects on the injured list in the minors. The team’s rotation depth chart currently looks like this:

1. RHP Tyler Glasnow
2. RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (out with shoulder issue, expected to face hitters next weekend)
3. RHP Walker Buehler (out with hip issue, expected to return Thursday)
4. LHP Clayton Kershaw
5. RHP Jack Flaherty
6. RHP Gavin Stone
7. RHP Tony Gonsolin (will miss 2024 with Tommy John surgery)
8. RHP Dustin May (will miss 2024 with flexor tendon and esophageal surgery)
9. RHP Emmet Sheehan (will miss 2024 with Tommy John surgery)
10. RHP River Ryan (out with forearm tightness)
11. LHP Kyle Hurt (will miss 2024 with Tommy John surgery)
12. RHP Landon Knack
13. LHP Justin Wrobleski

Bobby Miller, last year’s rookie star, missed two months with shoulder inflammation earlier this year and had an 8.07 ERA in seven big-league starts before being demoted. He has a 5.82 ERA with nearly as many walks (16) as strikeouts (17) in five Triple-A starts and has been passed over for several call ups, so it’s safe to say Miller is an emergency option only right now.

Ryan, 26 next week, is a converted infielder who came over from the rival San Diego Padres in a minor trade for utility man Matt Beaty in March 2022. He has a 1.33 ERA in four MLB starts this year. Baseball America ranked Ryan as the No. 10 prospect in the Dodgers’ system in their midseason update and said he “has the stuff to be a mid-rotation starter.”

The Dodgers have used 17 different starting pitchers this season, the most in baseball, yet they are 68-49 and have the second best record in the National League. That said, they are 17-18 in their last 35 games, and have seen their NL West lead whittled down from 8.5 games on July 23 to only 2.5 games entering play Sunday.