Emmet

Sheehan

Sheehan, 25, underwent Tommy John surgery in May. The right-hander is one of the more talented hurlers in the Los Angeles system, and even with a loaded rotation, he has a chance to make starts at some point in 2025 for the Dodgers. In terms of fantasy, he’s more of a 2026 play.

The writing was seemingly on the wall after Sheehan was shut down from throwing indefinitely a couple weeks ago due to right forearm inflammation. The 24-year-old right-hander showed some immense promise last year as a rookie before landing on the shelf back in spring training with an ominous arm injury. There should be some clarity on his return timetable at some point in the near future, but it’s obviously a significant development for his fantasy appeal in dynasty leagues.

Roberts noted that his forearm inflammation simply hasn’t responded the way that they had hoped it would and that it’s “a longer term situation”. Fantasy managers in season-long leagues that don’t have injured reserve spots to stash him, can safely cut bait with the 24-year-old right-hander. Even when/if he is healthy enough to return, Walker Buehler and/or Clayton Kershaw could be back and block his spot in the rotation anyways.

Nothing has changed in the prognosis for the 24-year-old hurler, this was merely done as a procedural move to free up a spot on the 40-man roster for Nabil Crismatt on Sunday. Sheehan is battling inflammation in his right forearm and will miss at least the first two months of the season.

It was believed that Sheehan had just been battling general soreness, but the fact that it’s a forearm issue that he’s dealing with instead is worrisome. No word yet on how long the club expects him to be sidelined for, but it’s definitely a situation that’s worth monitoring.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made it official Saturday telling reporters that Sheehan will open the season on the injured list as he continues to work his way back from general soreness at the outset of spring training. The 24-year-old right-hander, who posted a respectable 4.92 ERA, 1.19 WHIP and 64/26 K/BB ratio across 60 1/3 innings (13 appearances, 11 starts) last year in his rookie season, isn’t expected to require a lengthy absence. However, he’ll need some extra time to continue building up his pitch count and stamina before making his season debut. It’ll likely be either Gavin Stone or Michael Grove filling his rotation spot with Kyle Hurt and Ryan Yarbrough also in the mix.

The Dodgers have said all along that it was only a minor issue and that they were just being extra cautious with the 24-year-old right-hander, and it looks like that is indeed the case. Barring any additional setbacks, he should be ready to go for the start of the regular season.

Sheehan isn’t expected to pitch in the season-opening Korea Series, so he has a few extra days to ramp up in advance of late March after taking a few days off last week due to general soreness. It doesn’t sound like he’s in danger of missing the outset of the year at the moment.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts indicated that the layoff shouldn’t impact the 24-year-old availability for the beginning of the season. With Walker Buehler unavailable at the beginning of the season, Sheehan is expected to start the season as part of the Dodgers rotation.

The assumption is that this will be for more than just the Korea series, too. Buehler’s thoughts on the subject aren’t yet clear. In his last healthy season, Buehler made 33 starts and pitched 207 2/3 innings in 2021. The Dodgers haven’t said what kind of workload they’re targeting for this season in his first year back from Tommy John. With Buehler absent, Emmet Sheehan looks like the favorite to open up as the Dodgers’ fifth starter.