Mark Prior talks Dodgers pitching injuries: ‘It’s not a good quality of life’

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LOS ANGELES — Mark Prior’s past 12 months as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitching coach have required constant triage. His staffs are in constant flux, partly by design and partly due to a spate of injuries. The Dodgers won the World Series a year ago despite having just three healthy starters and have tried to spend their way through it.

Now, two former All-Star starters getting paid a combined $318.5 million are among the prominent starting pitchers on the shelf before the calendar has flipped to May.

No team in baseball has gotten fewer innings from its starters. No bullpen has been used more often. It’s an unenviable position.

“It’s not a good quality of life,” Prior said Tuesday afternoon as the Dodgers rolled out their second scheduled bullpen game of this young season. “For anybody.”

Blake Snell went on the injured list just two starts into the two-time Cy Young winner’s free-agent deal due to shoulder inflammation. Tyler Glasnow joined him on Monday, officially with shoulder trouble. Blake Treinen, the Dodgers’ top reliever last October, is also out for the foreseeable future with a sprained forearm. The Dodgers have eight starting pitchers and 13 pitchers overall on the injured list, several of whom are still recovering from last season’s wounds.

Mark Prior visits with Blake Snell, who made just two starts before landing on the disabled list. (Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)

The injuries have piled up. The Dodgers have publicly said they’re looking for answers, with president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman calling for an internal audit of their practices that took place from October through this offseason.

Did that lead to any changes on the major-league side for Prior?

“I’ve been around for, I hate to say it now, 23, 24 years,” Prior said. “Unfortunately, injuries (are) still in the game at a prevalent (level), at a high level. I wish it wasn’t, but it’s an unfortunate side of the game.”

Prior said that one of the active discussions was about how the Dodgers integrated some of their call-ups into the big-league environment. The Dodgers brought up Ben Casparius as a rookie last season into long relief after serving as a starter in 57 of his 79 career professional outings in the minor leagues.

“When they get here to this level, sometimes they get used in different roles, and they get taxed in different ways that they might not be accustomed to,” Prior said. “So that’s one thing that we’ve looked into, is trying to prepare, whether they’re completely relievers coming up, or they’re starters turned relievers. All those things matter, kind of like you’re on-ramping what it’s like.

“Because when you get up here, things change, and they change very drastically. A guy might be pitching every sixth day down there; all of a sudden, you’re expected to pitch multiple innings. … That takes time to acclimate, for your body to figure out, ‘How do I do this on a daily basis,’ not just that one time.”

Prior pointed to the added strain of pitching in the big leagues, creating another variable that can’t be replicated in the minor leagues. A suggestion he had was to build up pitchers’ workloads in the minors to have them prepped for similar strain in shorter bursts in the majors.

Those conversations haven’t changed much in terms of results.

“I think every case is different, but nothing is pinpointed exactly,” Prior said, “because I do think you could look into everybody’s timeline, their personal history, and how they get to certain points and how they get used when they get here, versus the way they’ve been used.

“Some of that matters, and some of it’s just unfortunate. You know, just bad luck. Nothing specific. And again, it’s something as an organization, we’ve been trying to wrap our head around. … It’s not (good) for the players who suffer the injuries. Doesn’t help us operate at an optimal level as a ballclub. And it’s something (where) we went through a stretch where we were very fortunate on the health front, and unfortunately, these last couple years, it hasn’t been that way.”

There still isn’t much clarity on when help is on the way. Tony Gonsolin will return to a big-league game for the first time in nearly 20 months on Wednesday against the Miami Marlins, giving the Dodgers four healthy starters. Clayton Kershaw had his rehab start with Triple-A Oklahoma City washed out on Tuesday but appears in line to be ready sometime around when he’s eligible to come off the 60-day injured list in mid-May.

Shohei Ohtani looms in the background for the second half of the season. He continues to throw once-weekly bullpen sessions but hasn’t mixed in any offspeed pitches. Prior said there’s no timeline for Ohtani to start facing hitters.

Snell’s timeline is still unknown. Multiple scans have come back clean, but Snell felt something again in the shoulder last week, one day before he was set to throw a second bullpen session.

“We thought we were in a good spot moving forward,” Prior said. “Clearly, that isn’t the case.”

Snell received a painkilling injection recently. He’s still shut down from throwing. The Dodgers won’t know how long he will need to build back up until he picks up a baseball again.

Yet, there’s seemingly more clarity than there is with Glasnow. The Dodgers opted not to send the right-hander for new imaging this week after he exited his start against the Pittsburgh Pirates after just one inning on Sunday. Manager Dave Roberts said Glasnow was being examined for “overall body soreness” beyond just the shoulder, which the organization said is believed to be structurally intact.

“He’s going through the steps to try to figure out exactly what’s going on in the acute injury process,” Prior said.

It’s been a frustrating process for a pitcher who has logged just 152 innings since the Dodgers traded for and extended him two offseasons ago. Prior said Glasnow could pick up some light throwing in a few days. It’ll be at least a couple of weeks until the Dodgers get some real clarity on how he’s doing. Even then, it’ll take getting him back into games to see if he can hold up for full-fledged outings.

“I can relate to kind of going down these roads, and it’s unfortunate, but he’s a competitor, and he does want to be out there,” Prior said. “Unfortunately, he just kind of keeps running into these little hiccups and speed bumps on these last few outings.”

(Top photo of Mark Prior: Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)

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