‘It better be rock bottom’: Dodgers’ bullpen woes on full display

LOS ANGELES — Edgardo Henriquez approached a slow chopper in Tuesday’s seventh inning, bobbled it initially, then threw so wide of first base that the baseball rolled all the way to the right-field fence.

All three Minnesota Twins baserunners scored. Boos rained down once again from Dodger Stadium’s bleachers. The Dodgers’ bullpen had completed yet another implosion, allowing six runs over the course of two innings to hand the team a 10-7 loss, its 11th in 14 games.

The Dodgers have long been expected to target bullpen help ahead of the trade deadline, which is now eight days away, but the urgency has only ratcheted up over the last week.

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Rock bottom, it seems, has arrived.

“It better be rock bottom,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “as far as how we’ve been pitching, how we’ve been playing defense.”

The Dodgers placed their most expensive reliever, Tanner Scott, on the injured list earlier Tuesday with what the team initially called elbow inflammation. An MRI confirmed that diagnosis, Scott said after the game, adding that his ulnar collateral ligament is intact. His timeline is uncertain, but Scott expressed confidence he will return to the bullpen at some point this season.

At the moment, though, he is among a daunting list of high-leverage Dodgers relievers who are unavailable, joining Blake Treinen, Michael Kopech, Brusdar Graterol and Evan Phillips, the latter of whom has undergone season-ending Tommy John surgery.

Another might join them.

Ben Casparius exited another rough outing with a cramp in his right calf Tuesday night and will undergo an MRI on Wednesday morning. Before exiting, Casparius — a godsend in April and May, a scourge in June and July — allowed three walks and a double to the four batters he faced. Alexis Diaz, discarded by the Cincinnati Reds despite being an All-Star closer in 2023, limited damage thereafter but allowed two inherited runners to score.

Will Klein and Henriquez, two power right-handers with devastating stuff but spotty command, handled the seventh inning. Klein struck out the first batter he faced, then walked the bases loaded and promptly exited. Two pitches later, Henriquez made the three-run error that gave the Twins a 9-5 lead and basically put the game out of reach.

The Dodgers’ bullpen has taken on the largest workload in the majors by a wide margin, a function of the injuries that had been absorbed throughout the starting rotation. They have compiled 450⅔ innings. The team with the second-largest workload, the Chicago White Sox, have accumulated just 405. Just as importantly, though, they haven’t performed. Dodgers relievers rank 24th in the majors in ERA (4.41), WHIP (1.35) and opponents’ OPS (.748).

“Things are gonna turn around,” Scott said.

Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes expressed a similar sentiment before the game. Treinen should be back before the end of July, Kopech is expected to follow in late August, Graterol is primed to become a late-season addition, and Scott and Kirby, the team’s two big offseason acquisitions, should be better. That, at least, is the hope.

“I would argue that if we stay somewhat healthy, that this group is better than it was last year,” Gomes said of a unit that helped carry the team to a championship last fall. “Obviously there’s a long time between now and the stretch run, but right now I feel very good about the talent level of this pitching staff.”

But the Dodgers will nonetheless target high-leverage relievers over the next week or so, at the very least to give Roberts more formidable options until the bullpen rounds back into health. Outside of Yates, who has struggled with his go-to splitter, and Alex Vesia, who has already appeared in 47 games, the options have become remarkably thin.

“It’s difficult,” Roberts said. “This is the guys we have right now, and they’re getting opportunities to make an impression. So that’s on them. When you have certain guys down, you’re put in leverage, bases loaded, nobody out, whatever it might be — you’ve gotta come in there and do your job. Some guys are, some guys aren’t.”