Dodgers hopeful Bobby Miller won’t be on injured list for long
The Dodgers’ rotation took a potentially significant hit during a rain delay Saturday night when the team announced young right-hander Bobby Miller was being put on the injured list because of shoulder inflammation.
However, both Miller and the Dodgers are hopeful the 25-year-old will sit out only limited time, with manager Dave Roberts indicating Sunday that Miller could begin a throwing program within the next five to seven days.
“It’s kind of been a nagging thing for a few weeks, but it’s nothing crazy,” Miller said. “Nothing too serious. We’ll be back.”
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Miller’s exact return date hasn’t yet been determined. While an MRI showed no structural damage to his shoulder, the team will evaluate how he feels this week before green-lighting a resumption of pitching activities.
Still, if Miller starts throwing again “within the next week,” as he said was his personal hope, then he might be able to make a relatively quick return to action, since he won’t have to fully rebuild his pitching stamina.
“I’m disappointed I can’t be out there with the guys,” Miller said. “But right now I’ll just focus on getting healthy and from what I know now I’ll be back soon.”
Miller, who was 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA in his three starts this season, said he had been feeling “normal achiness” since the start of the year that he expected “would pass.”
The discomfort, however, continued to nag at him in recent weeks. After striking out a career-high 11 batters in six scoreless innings in his season debut on March 29, he had given up seven runs in just 5 ⅔ innings in two starts since. In hindsight, both Miller and Roberts said, the right-hander’s shoulder ailment was probably affecting him on the mound.
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“There wasn’t one particular throw or one particular outing [in which he got hurt],” Roberts said. “He just hasn’t been recovering the last couple starts. So I think for us, there’s a little smoke, there’s a long way to go [in the season], and we want to kind of nip it early.”
Miller, who dealt with shoulder troubles at times as a minor leaguer, described this week’s injury as being “pretty similar” — and that only rest and treatment, not a medical injection or surgical procedure, was recommended by doctors.
“What I dealt with in the past was nothing crazy either,” Miller said. “We’re just being cautious. Just staying on top of health and treatment and everything like that. … I know I’ll be back soon.”
Walker Buehler nearing return
Walker Buehler, whose rehabilitation start for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga was cut short when he took a comebacker off the right knuckle in the second inning Friday night, will make his next scheduled minor league start, probably for triple-A Oklahoma City, on Thursday, Roberts said. The Dodgers are hoping for Buehler to throw 80-85 pitches in that outing, Roberts said, after which they will evaluate whether he is ready to return to the majors.
Blake Treinen’s fractured ribs
It turns out reliever Blake Treinen had fractured ribs after all. Initially diagnosed with just a bruised lung from a line drive he took in the side during a March 9 exhibition game, after an X-ray and CT scan came back negative, the Dodgers reliever said he continued to feel “locked up” during the club’s season-opening trip to Korea, keeping him sidelined for the series.
When the Dodgers returned home, Treinen then had an MRI that revealed fractures to his fifth and sixth ribs, he said.
Treinen has finally turned a corner of late, throwing to hitters in live batting practice Sunday for the first time since his injury. Roberts said Treinen will throw two more live BPs this week, then begin a rehab assignment after that.
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