Gavin Stone returns to action, sets sights on Dodgers rotation spot

PHOENIX –– Gavin Stone might be throwing with “a whole new shoulder” now, as he joked earlier this spring.

But to manager Dave Roberts, he’s the same “mini-bulldog” as the Dodgers remember from two years ago.

“This guy is gonna over-achieve and over-deliver,” Roberts said confidently Tuesday morning. “Gavin put in a lot of work to get back to being the pitcher he was.”

The pitcher Stone was in 2024, of course, looked destined to become the team’s next homegrown star.

He had a breakout rookie campaign that year, leading the Dodgers in innings pitched while going 11-5 with a 3.53 ERA in 25 starts.

He was also bestowed with the “mini-bulldog” nickname by Roberts –– who compared his efficient, pitch-to-contact, “throwback” approach to that of the franchise’s original “Bulldog,” Orel Hershiser. 

But then, just as Stone was putting the finishing touches on a Rookie of the Year-caliber performance that had him primed to be a frontline option in the Dodgers’ postseason rotation, adversity struck.

He gave up five runs in a five-inning start on Aug. 31 at the Arizona Diamondbacks. He found he “couldn’t pick up my shoulder” when he woke up the next morning. And after getting an MRI, his standout season was suddenly over, ultimately ending with a significant surgery to repair his shoulder capsule, labrum and rotator cuff.

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“I was surprised by the severity of the injury,” Roberts recalled. “But it speaks to how Gavin is such a tough, tough ballplayer. He was going through stuff, and still found a way to compete and be good.”

For the first time since that Arizona start almost 18 months ago, Stone returned to game action on Tuesday, and immediately impressed in a scoreless one-inning, two-strikeout, 15-pitch outing in the Dodgers’ Cactus League game against the Cleveland Guardians at Camelback Ranch.

He flashed natural feel for his trademark changeup, using it for both his punchouts. He was also around 94-95 mph with his fastball, already back to his pre-injury velocity.

Mostly, though, he was able to enjoy a moment that was just as cathartic as it was celebratory.

His “grind” of a recovery process might’ve forced him to miss the Dodgers’ 2024 World Series run, and all of their 2025 title defense. But it hasn’t diminished his confidence in getting back to being the pitcher he was before.

“That’s the goal, getting back to that mold of myself,” Stone said with a smile after his Tuesday outing. “And today was a great start.”

Entering camp, that goal seemed very much in question.

Shoulder injuries can often be the most difficult for pitchers to seamlessly come back from. And the extent of Stone’s shoulder damage came as a “shock” even to him.

“If you would’ve seen the MRI, it was horrible,” he said earlier this spring. “It’s still gonna be a long process, fine-tuning some things, getting the timing down.”

Yet, Stone’s steady progress through the early stage of camp has come as a pleasant surprise to Dodgers personnel –– putting him in competition with River Ryan, Justin Wrobelski and others for a potential opening day rotation spot with Blake Snell unlikely to be ready for the start of the season.

Roberts said Stone is further along in his ramp-up than Ryan, a fellow 2024 rookie standout who missed the last year and a half recovering from Tommy John surgery. And on Tuesday, Stone’s premier changeup looked sharp as ever, getting a whiff five out of the six times batters tried to swing at it.

“That’s my bread and butter, so if I don’t have that, I’m screwed,” Stone joked. “But it was the easiest pitch on my shoulder to throw. It never really hurt, so I got to practice it a lot, just getting the feel for it. Seeing the results today is really uplifting.”

The changeup sets up the rest of Stone’s arsenal, which also includes a slider, cutter and sinker. When mixing those weapons, he can induce soft contact, collect quick outs and pitch deep into games as he showed two years ago, when he logged more than 140 innings and threw the Dodgers’ most recent complete game shutout.

“I think it’s gonna be a good year (for him),” Roberts said when asked about his expectations for Stone in 2026. “I don’t know how many innings he’s gonna throw. But I do know that he will be impactful for us.”

Indeed, the Dodgers will still be mindful of Stone’s workload. Roberts and Andrew Friedman have both acknowledged debating how hard to push him early in the season. Coming out of Tuesday’s auspicious return, however, Stone was singularly focused on only one thing moving forward:

Getting back into the Dodgers’ rotation as soon as possible, and picking up where he left off before his shoulder surgery.

“My goal is to make the team out of camp,” Stone said. “So I’m doing everything I can to make that happen.”

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com