Dodgers notes: Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, Max Muncy

Tony Gonsolin threw a bullpen session on Friday at Chase Field, one that manager Dave Roberts called “really good” and “pretty encouraging” after standing in the batters box during the session.

There will still need to be a progression before Gonsolin will return to the Dodgers. The typical path is usually first facing hitters, then a minor league rehab assignment. During the Freeway Series, the hope was for Gonsolin to potentially return in late April.

If that’s still on track, Gonsolin would likely still have time for three rehab starts. I’m sure the next few days will determine his next steps.

Links

• Dustin May has allowed only one run in 13 innings so far this season, and has also rated well by a few pitch modeling and stuff metrics. Ben Clemens at FanGraphs details May’s arsenal, which could have four above-average pitches at his disposal.
• The Dodgers are still in the process of sorting things out in the bullpen hierarchy, writes Jack Harris at the Los Angeles Times. “We’re still trying to find our footing,” manager Dave Roberts said.
• Max Muncy has struggled not only offensively to start the season, but also on defense at third. Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic wrote about the early slump, of which Muncy said, “I feel really good over there, I feel I’m a very good defender over there ... But like I said, when things go bad, they go bad. You get a couple bad hops, put yourself in a couple bad positions, you get a ball 7 inches off the plate called a strike.”
• Juan Toribio’s Dodgers Beat newsletter for MLB.com this week looks at Will Smith’s hot start, Muncy’s struggles, and has injury updates on a few pitchers.
• Molly Knight in her The Long Game newsletter wrote that it will take some time to get used to the pitch timer while attending games in person, as the faster pace was a lot to take in.
• Mike Petriello at MLB.com took a gander at trends from the first week across MLB with new rules in place. Among the early stats is that batting average on balls in play for left-handed batters on ground balls hasn’t changed much with shift restrictions, but BABIP for lefty batters on line drives is way up.
• I was a guest of Anthony Irwin on his Substack podcast ($), talking about the Dodgers offseason and early reactions to new MLB rules. Here’s a free clip.