The Dodgers announced Friday that they’ve placed right-hander Michael Grove on the 15-day injured list due to a groin strain and selected the contract of fellow righty Jake Reed from Triple-A Oklahoma City in his place. Los Angeles transferred righty Ryan Pepiot from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Reed. Pepiot has been out all season thus far due to an oblique strain and will now be sidelined until the end of May, at the earliest.
Grove, 26, opened the season as the Dodgers’ fifth starter — a role that had initially been won by Pepiot before he suffered that oblique strain. While Grove is sporting a grisly 8.44 ERA, that number is particularly skewed by one disastrous outing in which the D-backs ambushed him for nine runs in three innings of work. He hasn’t exactly dominated in his other three outings but has kept the club generally competitive, with a 4.26 ERA in those three outings. The new injury will derail his ability to continue whittling away at that unsightly ERA for at least the next couple weeks.
This is the second big league season for Grove, who also pitched 29 1/3 frames of 4.60 ERA ball for the Dodgers late in the 2022 campaign. While he’s never been regarded as a premier prospect, he’s consistently ranked among the organization’s 20 to 25 best prospects since being selected in the second round of the 2018 draft. His 2022 campaign in the minors was particularly solid, as Grove logged a combined 3.79 ERA with a 28% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate in 76 innings between Double-A and Triple-A.
The 30-year-old Reed has spent time with the Dodgers in each of the past two seasons, though he’s pitched just ten innings for them at the big league level. He’s allowed just three runs on 11 hits and three walks with seven punchouts during his time as a Dodger, but Reed has a 5.74 ERA in 26 1/3 innings as a big leaguer overall.
A fifth-round pick of the Twins back in 2014, Reed was once a promising bullpen prospect in Minnesota’s system but has yet to consistently produce in limited big league opportunities. Over the past three seasons, he’s bounced between the Dodgers, Rays, Mets, Orioles and Red Sox via waivers, with multiple stops in L.A. along that circuitous journey.
With Grove joining Pepiot and Tony Gonsolin on the injured list, the Dodgers are down to four healthy starters: Clayton Kershaw, Julio Urias, Dustin May and Noah Syndergaard. That said, the team has a scheduled off-day next Monday, which will allow them to skip the fifth spot in the rotation. As such, they won’t need a fifth starter until April 30, at the earliest.
The Dodgers could opt for a bullpen game that day, as they don’t have any ready-made options on the 40-man roster outside of long reliever Andre Jackson. Alternatively, if the team wants to open some space on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers have top prospects Bobby Miller and Gavin Stone in Triple-A, as well as non-roster veterans Robbie Erlin, Dylan Covey and Matt Andriese. Grove will be eligible to return in early May, and the Dodgers are also expecting to get Gonsolin back sometime in the middle of next month.
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