Just when the Dodgers thought their pitching staff was getting healthier, they announced yet another significant injury Friday.
Rookie right-hander Gavin Stone was placed on the injured list because of shoulder inflammation, the team said, leaving the 25-year-old’s status for the season’s final stretch unclear amid a breakout campaign.
President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said Stone will be shut down for at least 10 days, then attempt to start throwing again.
While he didn’t rule Stone out for the season, it leaves an incredibly narrow window for the rookie to return in time for a potential playoff run.
Read more: ‘Feel like myself.’ How embattled Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler is salvaging his season
“I’m optimistic he is going to do everything he possibly can,” Friedman said. “There’s just so much unknown around it.”
In the meantime, starting pitchers Landon Knack and Justin Wrobleski were called up from triple A and reliever Michael Peterson was optioned in a corresponding move.
Knack was set to start Friday night in the opener of a three-game series with Cleveland, while Wrobleski likely will fill in for Stone’s scheduled Saturday start.
Stone had been the one member of the Dodgers’ opening-day rotation not to go on the injured list while becoming just the fifth Dodgers pitcher in the last four years to make 25 starts in a season.
However, in start No. 25 last weekend in Arizona, Stone threw just 84 pitches in five innings before manager Dave Roberts decided he was out of gas and pulled him from the game.
While Stone said he felt he could have thrown 100 or more pitches, his condition apparently took a turn this week, with him reporting shoulder discomfort. It makes Stone the Dodgers’ latest rotation question mark — along with other current IL members Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw — with three weeks remaining in the regular season.
After top deadline acquisition Jack Flaherty, Stone seemed like the safest lock to be in the Dodgers’ potential postseason rotation.
In a reversal of his dismal debut last year, Stone blossomed with a new pitch mix,…