More pitching injuries & Freddie Freeman’s Atlanta return

Andrew Heaney and Daniel Hudson land on the injured list

By Eric Stephen@ericstephen Jun 27, 2022, 7:04am PDT

MLB: Los Angeles Dodgers at Atlanta Braves

Monday’s Leading Off with True Blue LA podcast looks back the Dodgers series against the Braves, as well as injuries that just add more to the Los Angeles trade deadline to-do list.

First up are the injuries, with Daniel Hudson out for the season with a torn ACL, costing the Dodgers their most consistent late-inning high-leverage reliever, and Andrew Heaney back on the injured list with shoulder inflammation.

With most of the in-house pitching fixes — Dustin May as a starter, plus Tommy Kahnle, Victor González, and Danny Duffy in relief — not ready until August at the earliest, plus Walker Buehler in September, there’s a lot of unknowns in the Dodgers’ 2022 pitching future. The trade deadline, which is August 2 this year, is where teams seek certainty, or at least more peace of mind.

Factor in that Mookie Betts could be out a while longer with his rib fracture, and Edwin Ríos won’t be back until at least August, the Dodgers will almost certainly be in play for a bat at the trade deadline, too. The Dodgers needs are many.

As for Freeman’s return to Atlanta, there was a lot going on. The celebration and longing was prevalent pretty much all weekend, not that it was all Freeman’s fault. Though over the top by MLB ceremonial standards, I didn’t think it was necessarily out of line. The only reaction I’ve seen from Freeman’s Dodgers teammates was from Clayton Kershaw to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which seemed fairly straightforward. I delve briefly into that.