Breaking News: River Ryan’s season is ended by Tommy John surgery, adding to the Dodgers’ pitching injury difficulties.
Another starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers has been lost to injury. After 4 2/3 innings and 56 pitches, rookie righty River Ryan left Saturday night’s start against the Pittsburgh Pirates (LAD 4, PIT 1) due to what was initially thought to be stiffness in his forearms. The team revealed on Tuesday that Ryan would shortly have Tommy John surgery to repair a torn UCL in his throwing elbow, which was a sign of things getting worse. Ryan’s 2024 season was already announced to be over by manager Dave Roberts, and it now appears likely that he will miss the majority of the 2025 season, if not all of it.
Ryan claimed that during the third inning of the game on Saturday, he started to have soreness in his forearm, but he was able to relieve it with a massager in between innings. In the fifth inning, it tightened up on him again, and Ryan began to wince. Roberts and the training staff took him out of the game. Due to an injured shoulder, Ryan missed the first two months of the current season.
Ryan’s forearm tightness turned out to be a common sign of elbow ligament problems and frequently preceded Tommy John surgery. The Dodgers had a full rotation on the injured list in addition to a number of noteworthy minor league prospects, which is why Ryan was included in the rotation. This is the current rotation depth chart for the team.
