It’s been a while since we’ve seen Brusdar Graterol pitch in an actual game. And it’s going to be a little while longer too, as manager Dave Roberts told reporters on Wednesday at Camelback Ranch that the Dodgers reliever won’t be ready to open the regular season.
Graterol is coming off shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum from November 2024, and did not pitch in the majors or minors in 2025. There was excitement during the offseason that he’d be ready to go for a full spring training this year, but things took a turn for the worse once Graterol wasn’t getting the expected results while throwing in camp.
“With Brusdar, he’s shown that we can count on him in the biggest of spots. We just gotta get him up to the velocity. It’s an intentionally slow build up,” Roberts said Wednesday. “He’s not going to start the season [active].”
Other Dodgers who won’t be ready to start the season are Evan Phillips, who is already on the 60-day injured list after Tommy John surgery last June; Brock Stewart, who had shoulder surgery in October; Tommy Edman, who had right ankle surgery in November; and Kiké Hernández, after left elbow surgery in November. There will almost certainly be others.
We’ve talked before about how opening day is just one of 186 days on the regular season schedule, and on a Dodgers team with postseason aspirations they basically plan for seven months instead of six. Last year, for instance, the Dodgers tied their franchise record with 40 pitchers used, but only four were active for the entire regular season — Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Alex Vesia, Anthony Banda, and Jack Dreyer.
But it still has to be disheartening for Graterol, who also had shoulder trouble and a hamstring injury in 2024 that limited him to only 10 games between the regular season and postseason that year, only pitching a combined 9 2/3 innings over the last two seasons.
Graterol with his five years, 167 days of major league service time will be a free agent after this season. But he enters his launch season with 190 2/3 career innings. Weirdly, that almost exactly matches Dustin May (191 2/3) heading into last season with similar service time. May though was a starter and after two Tommy John surgeries was able to pitch 132 1/3 innings in 2025, more than any two of his previous seasons combined heading into the open market.
Phillips will also be a free agent at the end of the season, and will have less of a runway into free agency, as he’s not expected back before the All-Star break. He has a little more bulk stats under his belt at this point with 252 innings and 46 saves (45 of them with the Dodgers).
Graterol will still have time to put together his 2026 season, even if the build-up to get there is methodical.