The Los Angeles Dodgers should get two pitching reinforcements in the coming weeks.
Right-handed pitchers Tony Gonsolin and Evan Phillips are expected to start rehab assignments by the end of this week, as they get closer to making their 2025 debuts for the Dodgers.
Gonsolin, 30, hasn’t pitched since 2023 after undergoing Tommy John surgery and missing the entire 2024 season. Gonsolin made three rehab starts at the end of last year, but didn’t end up getting activated for the postseason.
This spring, Gonsolin entered camp in a competition for the No. 5 starter spot. However, a minor back injury while lifting weights forced him to start the season on the injured list, paving the way for Dustin May to win the job.
“I was squatting. I wasn’t even going heavy,” Gonsolin said of how he suffered the injury. “I think it was probably slightly out of place before, and then under load, it just kind of shifted a little bit.
“It wasn’t too painful, but it was altering my throw, and we wanted to take a break, let it actually heal to keep the throw good.”
Gonsolin admitted to being extremely frustrated after being so close to finally returning to big league action before the setback.
“I was in a really good spot,” Gonsolin said. “I felt like my body was feeling great. Throw felt really good. It felt really clean. Executing pitches. And then to have something like that, non-baseball-related, really sucked, honestly. … I don’t really have any other words for it.”
Gonsolin will presumably make a couple rehab starts before returning to the Dodgers, potentially sometime in mid or late April.
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As for Phillips, he got a late start to the spring after dealing with a shoulder injury last postseason that kept him off the World Series roster.
Phillips began ramping up later in the spring, but is now ready to go on rehab assignment, and potentially return to the Dodgers sooner rather than later.
Phillips had a 3.62 ERA across 61 appearances for L.A. last year. He had a 2.05 ERA across 62 appearances in 2023, and a 1.14 ERA across 64 appearances in 2022.
