After an incredibly stable stretch of 13 game days in a row in April, the Dodgers just completed a much more chaotic 13-day span with pitching turnover more than every other day.
In the previous long stretch of games, from April 17-29, the Dodgers only made one pitching roster move during the 13 days, calling up Jake Eder when closer Edwin Díaz was placed on the injured list to undergo elbow surgery. That was abnormal, as during the 2025 season the Dodgers in stretches of at least 10 game days in a row before September roster expansion added three, nine, three, and four pitchers to the active roster.
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This most-recent span, which just ended on Wednesday, was quite prolific for the Dodgers, who added a pitcher eight times to the roster in 13 days, three of which weren’t even in the organization two weeks ago:
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May 18: Jonathan Hernández signed and joined the bullpen, McDermott optioned
The Dodgers were seemingly playing catchup for the last two weeks, starting with Wednesday, May 6 in Houston, when Glasnow left his start with back spasms after just one inning. That necessitated the bullpen to cover the final eight innings of that game, before the off day that predated this 13-game stretch. Snell returning from his rehab assignment a week early further complicated things, as he lasted only three innings in his start and has since landed back on the injured list and had elbow surgery this Tuesday.
The Dodgers needed a bullpen game to fill in for Snell’s scheduled Friday start, using eight pitchers in the opener in Anaheim. In the other 12 games during this stretch Dodgers starting pitchers did their best, averaging 5.81 innings per start with a 3.88 ERA, compared to 6.05 innings per start with a 2.40 ERA from April 17-29. But the bullpen in that first 13-day stretch had to cover 34 1/3 innings compared to 46 1/3 innings in this most-recent span.
That means a lot of scrambling to cover innings, which necessitated many of these moves, some of them stacking on each other. For instance, Barnes was called up Friday and pitched in both games he was active before getting optioned on Sunday for McDermott, who pitched in his one game active before getting sent down for Hernández on Monday.
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To the bullpen’s credit, they thrived even with the heavy workload and turnover. After the seventh inning on Tuesday, May 12 against the San Francisco Giants, Dodgers relievers pitched 29 scoreless innings over the last eight-plus games, helping to underwrite a 7-1 stretch.
The schedule eases a bit with respect to off days, with the Dodgers playing six games in a row before another off day next Thursday, and they won’t have to play more than 10 days in a row for the next month. Their next stretch of 13 days in a row comes from June 26-July 8.
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