The Dodgers led MLB in what would appear to be a dubious category last season: bullpen innings pitched. Someone has to have the most, but you’d think it’d typically be reserved for teams with poor starting pitching.
Here are the Top 10 most bullpen innings thrown, by team, over the last 15 seasons, and the team’s won-loss record (2011-25).
To absolutely no one’s surprise, the Rays appear quite a bit (also, what was going on in 2019?). But if you take them out, the only team to finish with a record better than .500 is the 2024 Tigers. The 2025 Dodgers’ bullpen innings pitched of 657 2/3 is good for 17th-most over this span.
The Dodgers rode their bullpen in the 2024 postseason to a World Series championship, but despite leading MLB in bullpen IP last season, it was their starting pitchers who shouldered most of the workload in October.
Fast forward to this season. It seems that, even with Blake Snell on the injured list and Roki Sasaki‘s struggles, the Dodgers starting pitchers are doing a good job pitching deeper into games. They lead MLB in innings pitched by starting pitchers at 181 1/3 (just ahead of the Mariners’ 181). They are averaging 5.85 innings per start, but that number is skewed a bit by Sasaki, who is averaging just 4.53 IP/GS. If you remove Sasaki from the equation, the quintet of Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, Emmet Sheehan, Justin Wrobleski and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are averaging 6.10 IP/GS.
In fact, Glasnow’s 5 2/3 innings against the Marlins on Wednesday was the first time he failed to reach six innings in an outing this season. The same can be said about Yamamoto’s 5-inning outing against the Fish on Monday night. Ohtani has thrown exactly six innings in all five of his starts. Wrobleski has been an innings-eater since joining the rotation (6.75 IP/GS) and Sheehan (5.27 IP/GS) has had a bit of an up-and-down campaign thus far, posting the poorest non-Sasaki results of all the starting pitchers.
Something that should be noted: The Dodgers are able to employ this strategy because the results have been really good. Here are their starters’ ranks in some of the most important pitching categories:
2.83 ERA, 2nd
3.51 xERA, 3rd
3.66 FIP, 4th
3.82 SIERA, 6th
15.8 K-BB%, 5th
.201 BAA, 1st
This has taken some burden off the bullpen that has been better than last season, but still has had its share of struggles on the bump and with injuries. Their 92 2/3 bullpen innings is the fewest in baseball, thanks to the strong, extending outings by the starters.
We’ll see if this trend continues. Snell is on a rehab assignment and due back sometime in May. That’ll push someone out of the rotation, provided everyone is healthy. And when healthy, Snell is one of the best pitchers in baseball, not just on the Dodgers. His work in the playoffs before the World Series was a big reason the Dodgers reached the Fall Classic — and a reason for his slower start to the season, but I’m sure he’s just fine trading a few weeks on the injured list for a ring.
For reference: The last time a team won the World Series while leading the league in starting pitcher innings was the 2022 Astros. Before that, the 2005 White Sox. It’s a rarity in this era of baseball.
Pitchers break. That’s not news. We’ll see as attrition sets in if the Dodgers can maintain this pace with their starting pitchers. In the age of openers and 5-and-dive starters, the Dodgers are kickin’ it old school with their rotation.
