Dodgers lose Brock Stewart to shoulder surgery, monitor other injuries ahead of playoffs

When the Dodgers traded for Brock Stewart at the trade deadline, they knew he came with some risk.

But on Friday, their worst-case scenario was realized.

Stewart will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery, manager Dave Roberts announced, leaving the Dodgers without the only impact deadline addition they made to bolster their struggling bullpen.

Although the Dodgers have been managing several injury concerns — from Will Smith’s fractured hand, to Tommy Edman’s sore ankle, to leg bruises that Max Muncy revealed on Friday he has been dealing with — Stewart’s status had become among the most alarming.

Even after completing a minor-league rehab stint for a shoulder problem that had kept him out since early August, he continued to feel residual soreness.

After meeting with head team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache this week, Stewart and the team decided surgery would be best. According to general manager Brandon Gomes, the 33-year-old is having a debridement procedure that should allow him to pitch the “majority” of next season, when he will still be under team control with the Dodgers.

But for this October, the club will have to proceed without him.

"We had a lot of conversations with Brock, and he was like, 'Hey, I want to help this team in any way possible,'” Gomes said. “But watching him throw and just having the conversations with him, there was still something that was just bothering him. As much as we would love to have him right now, we don't want to put his long-term health at risk.”

Shoulder problems are nothing new for Stewart. Last season, he made just 16 appearances with the Minnesota Twins before undergoing arthroscopic shoulder surgery in August.

While this latest injury is not believed to be directly related to last year’s issue, Gomes did acknowledge that “any time you're taking on a pitcher, we understand that there are risks.”

It’s not that the Dodgers overpaid for Stewart, giving up only former prospect James Outman in their deadline deal with the Twins. But, by not adding a bigger name in a bullpen that had been slumping even before the deadline (and has further spiraled in the two months since), the Dodgers put a lot of eggs in the right-hander’s basket. He was supposed to give the unit some experienced stability. Now, he leaves yet another hole to fill.

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Without Stewart, the Dodgers’ right-handed relief hierarchy is somewhat unclear. They still have longtime stalwart Blake Treinen, but he has posted a career-worst 5.47 ERA and dealt with first-half arm troubles. Hard-throwing rookie Edgardo Henriquez has a 2.50 ERA in 21 appearances, but still has just 21⅓ career innings in the big leagues. And then there’s Roki Sasaki, the rookie Japanese phenom who returned from a nearly five-month shoulder injury with an auspicious inning out of the bullpen this week.

Another name that could enter the mix: Starting pitcher Emmet Sheehan, who was scheduled to pitch Friday’s series-opener against the Seattle Mariners but will likely be shifted to a multi-inning relief role out of the bullpen come the postseason.

In any event, however, Stewart’s absence will still hurt. What the Dodgers hoped would be a high-upside play, given his 2.38 ERA with the Twins this season, has instead become yet another bullpen let-down.

Will Smith’s status

Little has changed in Will Smith’s recovery from a hand fracture, with Roberts saying he was “hoping” — but not “hopeful” — about the catcher being available for next week’s best-of-three wild-card round.

“He's going to start trying to swing a bat,” Roberts said. “That'll kind of give us a little bit more information. Potentially start throwing as well.”

Roberts also noted that “each day, Will does say it's feeling a little bit better."

However, given the nature of his injury, “it's just tricky,” Gomes added.

“You never know with bones,” Gomes said. “One day it might feel better and we can really take off. We're not closing off the door to that right now. But we got to make sure to check some boxes before that."

If Smith is not available to catch in the wild-card round, which begins Tuesday, Roberts reiterated that Ben Rortvedt will likely see the “lion’s share” of playing time.

Edman, Muncy getting rest

In better injury news, Roberts sounded hopeful of having Edman and Muncy for the start of the playoffs. On Friday, however, he gave them both a second consecutive day off.

Edman has been dealing with the latest flare-up to his long-bothersome ankle injury, having tweaked it again while running down a fly ball in center field in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s win in Arizona.

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“It’s not gonna be 100% throughout the rest of the season. It is something we’re gonna have to keep managing,” Roberts said. “But my thought is he’ll be back in there tomorrow.”

Muncy, meanwhile, revealed Friday that he has been battling some leg bruising, which was at least in part the result of a hit-by-pitch he took to his lower half last week against the San Francisco Giants.

But, like Edman, the Dodgers’ expectation is that he’ll be ready for Game 1.

“It’s just trying to be smart about a couple things,” Muncy said. “Just trying to manage all of that, stay on top of that and hopefully clean all that up.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.