Dodgers starting pitcher likely to miss 2025 season following shoulder surgery

The Dodgers announced Saturday that right-hander Gavin Stone underwent surgery on his right shoulder on Oct. 9. The surgery was performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache and figures to cause Stone to miss the entire 2025 season.

Stone, 26 next week, made his big league debut with the Dodgers last year to lackluster results but enjoyed a breakout campaign this season upon being forced into the rotation by a number of pitching injuries. Stone wound up being one of the club’s most reliable pitchers for most of the year as key players like Bobby Miller, Walker Buehler, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Tyler Glasnow all fell by the wayside throughout significant portions of the season due to injuries, ineffectiveness, or a combination thereof. During that time, Stone stepped up to post a solid 3.53 ERA (109 ERA+) with a 4.01 FIP in 140 1/3 innings of work across 25 starts, including an utterly dominant 2.73 ERA in his first 15 starts of the season.

Unfortunately for the Dodgers, Stone began to flag late in the season as he made it out of the fifth inning just three times after the All-Star break, pitching to a 4.12 ERA and 5.00 FIP in his final eight starts of the year before he too was placed on the IL in early September due to what at the time was termed right shoulder inflammation. The soreness persisted throughout the month of September and eventually led to him being more or less ruled out for the club’s postseason push just under a month ago. At the time, there was little indication that Stone wouldn’t be ready to go come spring training 2025 but that’s no longer the case as the youngster will likely have to wait until 2026 to follow up on an impressive rookie campaign.

While the news changes little for the Dodgers as they look to take on the Mets in the NLCS on Sunday in hopes of advancing to their first World Series since the shortened 2020 season, Stone’s absence is a devastating blow to the club’s 2025 starting rotation. With Shohei Ohtani expected to return to the club’s rotation early next year, it seems likely that the Dodgers will employ a six-man rotation next year as the Angels did while Ohtani was pitching for them. Ohtani, Yamamoto, and Glasnow figure to occupy three of those six slots, but the Dodgers have little in the way of certainty beyond that group.

Miller will return to the club next year but struggled to an 8.52 ERA in 13 starts this year, leaving questions regarding how willing the club would be to rely on him for a significant number of starts next year. Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May both figure to return to the mound early next year, but will be coming off lengthy absences that could make them questionable choices to pencil in for 30 starts a piece. Clayton Kershaw could return but is undecided about his future after a mostly lost season due to injury, while both Buehler and Jack Flaherty are ticketed for free agency this November.

Given the numerous questions the Dodgers face regarding their rotation depth this winter, it seems likely that bolstering their starting pitching corps will be a priority for the club this winter even as they boast a number of potentially strong options. This winter’s free-agent class of starters is headlined by Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell, Max Fried, and Flaherty. The Dodgers have shown little hesitance about shopping at the top of the free-agent market, so it’s certainly feasible to imagine that caliber of name being in play for the club. Even looking beyond that group, however, L.A. could still bolster their rotation depth with mid-tier options like Nathan Eovaldi, Sean Manaea, or Luis Severino or even search for a bounce-back candidate or two as they’ve done with Tyler Anderson and Noah Syndergaard in recent years.