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Dodgers place Ryan Pepiot on IL with oblique injury to start season

March 31, 2023

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers announced their season-opening roster Thursday morning with nine players starting out on the injured list.

One of them was an unexpected addition.

Right-hander Ryan Pepiot will open the season on the sidelines with a strained oblique muscle in his left side. Pepiot had been slated to fill Tony Gonsolin’s spot in the starting rotation while Gonsolin recovers from a spring ankle injury. Instead, right-hander Michael Grove will take that spot and make his first start on Monday against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium.

“I’m pretty disappointed. I’m pretty bummed,” said Pepiot, who had edged Grove in the spring battle for a rotation spot. “It was pretty disappointing coming in yesterday and getting the news.

“It was a dream come true being told I made the roster. But I’m just happy we caught it pretty early so it wouldn’t linger too long.”

Pepiot had one spring start cut short on March 17 against the Cubs when he felt tightness in his lower back. The oblique issue is “different,” he said, and it first cropped up during a night start in Peoria, Ariz., on March 22.

“The back thing in Mesa was just kind of stiffness from sitting between innings,” he said. “That was more lower back. This is all side, ribs.”

Pepiot struggled in his final preseason start, throwing 86 pitches but not getting through four innings in the Freeway Series finale against the Angels.

“The past couple weeks there’s just been a little lingering oblique,” he said. “I tried to throw through it the other day (against the Angels), thought it would be fine. After the first inning, I just felt it even more. Tried to battle through it, probably overcompensated and woke up really sore yesterday.”

Gonsolin has begun throwing off a mound but is not expected back before the end of April after eventually going on a minor-league injury rehabilitation assignment. Pepiot will not do any throwing for a few days until the symptoms subside. How long it takes for him to be ready to pitch again remains to be seen.

“When you hear oblique … what that says to us is to be extra careful so it doesn’t linger,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “So I think that’s kind of where we’re at with that.”

FINE WINE

All of the Dodgers’ players and coaches found a bottle of wine in their lockers Thursday afternoon – a 2020 vintage Cabernet Sauvignon from Caymus Vineyards. They were Opening Day gifts from veteran outfielder Jason Heyward.

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Heyward said he felt it was “fitting for this group” and equated the wine-making process to a long baseball season, requiring patience, attention to detail and “a lot of grind.”

“At the end of the day, there is positivity at the end of that process,” Heyward said. “It’s something I wanted to give these guys to start, as we have a clean slate. Throughout this grind, we’ve got to have that positivity.”

ALSO

Shortstop Gavin Lux is with the Dodgers for the season-opening homestand and said he expects to be in Los Angeles for at least the first couple of months of his rehab from knee surgery performed three weeks ago. He will move his rehab to the Dodgers’ training complex in Arizona when he is able to do more. For now, his workouts are limited to range-of-motion exercises.

UP NEXT

Diamondbacks (RHP Merrill Kelly, 13-8, 3.37 ERA in 2022) at Dodgers (RHP Dustin May, 2-3, 4.50 ERA in 2022), Friday, 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM

Orange County Register

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Dodgers place Ryan Pepiot on IL with oblique injury to start season

FINE WINE

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