What happened to Dodgers’ Evan Phillips? All we know about player’s devastating injury

Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts recently gave an update about reliever Evan Phillips. The team's boss revealed that the 30-year-old would undergo Tommy John surgery, effectively ending the hurler's 2025 campaign.

Before getting shelved, Phillips posted a save and six strikeouts without allowing any runs across 5 2/3 innings. Since the team's May 5 game against the Miami Marlins, the reliever has been out of action due to discomfort in his throwing arm.

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"It's surprising. [I'm] more disappointed for Evan [Phillips], but he just wasn't responding to the rest and then try to ramp back up. So ultimately, that was kind of the advice and the route he decided to go," said Roberts. (4:12-4:31)

Phillips has been a part of the Dodgers organization since 2021. In 2024, the reliever posted a 5-1 record and a 3.62 ERA with 63 strikeouts across 54 2/3 innings.

In addition, throughout his career in Los Angeles, he has recorded a 15-9 record with 45 saves and a 2.22 ERA across 195 innings.

He now adds to the tally of Dodger pitchers this season who are set to miss significant time as the team looks to defend its 2024 World Series titles with a fragmented pitching staff.

Dodgers' laundry list of pitcher injuries

In 2024, the Dodgers, under the stewardship of skipper Dave Roberts, navigated through pitching injuries in their lineup. This year, however, will be more difficult than the last as more bodies have hit the deck for Los Angeles.

At the time of writing, 11 Dodger pitchers have been placed on the injury list. Big names such as Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki have hampered the dominance of the team's starting rotation with their injury woes. Meanwhile, their backups Gavin Stone, Emmet Sheehan and River Ryan have also been hit with the injury bug and have been placed on the 60-day IL.

Meanwhile, with Evan Phillips' addition to the injured list, he became the fifth reliever to be sidelined this year. World Series heroes Blake Treinen and Brusdar Graterol, Kirby Yates and Michael Kopech have all missed significant action this season.

With the Dodgers' rotation short of bodies, Dustin May, Landon Knack, Tony Gonsolin and Clayton Kershaw have all been given the improbable task of navigating games for the squad for the foreseeable future.

As for the bullpen, the likes of Chris Stratton, Luis Garcia and Lou Trivino have sometimes been utilized as committees to finish out games to alleviate some pressure from the ailing starting core.

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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Edited by Daniel Santiago