Brusdar Graterol’s comeback hit another wall on May 12, when the Dodgers reliever suffered a back flare-up during a minor-league rehab outing. The setback is expected to keep him out for a considerable amount of time, and surgery is being considered.
The latest turn matters because Graterol has barely been on the mound for Los Angeles over the last two seasons. He missed the entire 2025 season and has thrown less than eight innings for the Dodgers since the start of the 2024 season, leaving the club with little chance to count on the hard-throwing right-hander in the near term.
The Dodgers and Graterol avoided arbitration in the offseason and agreed to a one-year, $2.8 million deal, a modest bet on a pitcher who once looked like a key late-inning weapon. He was acquired by Los Angeles ahead of the 2020 season and fully emerged as a high-leverage bullpen option in 2023, when he posted a 1.20 ERA in 68 appearances.
That production is the backdrop to the risk the Dodgers appeared willing to take. Keeping Graterol around this year suggested the team hoped he could get back to the form that made him such an important bullpen piece, but the rehab assignment at the start of May quickly ran into trouble. Instead of building toward a return, he is back in uncertainty, with no clear timetable and the possibility that his season could end before it really begins.
Graterol is also set to become a free agent at the end of the season, which adds another layer of uncertainty for both sides. If surgery is needed, his market could look very different from the one the Dodgers envisioned when they brought him back on the one-year deal. For now, the question is less about when he returns than whether Los Angeles will get another meaningful inning from a pitcher it once counted on to shorten games.
