Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said that Hyun-Jin Ryu is closing in on the start of a minor league rehab assignment. It won’t come for at least another week, but that’s the best update the Dodgers have provided on the left-handed pitcher since spring training.
“Ryu is going to (throw to) live hitters again” next week, Roberts said. “Then we’re looking at sending him on a rehab assignment.”
That rehab assignment could begin by “Monday, maybe,” Roberts said, referring to May 23.
Asked where Ryu will go, Roberts said that he “might end up in Tulsa.”
There aren’t a lot of definites nestled among those comments, but at least there’s some optimism. Ryu has been limited to throwing off the Dodger Stadium mound to minor league hitters in recent weeks, and at least one (Yusniel Diaz) took him deep.
The plan calls for right-hander Brandon McCarthy to head out on a minor league rehab assignment immediately after Ryu, so the two could be out on the rehab trail together very soon.
Ryu is working back from shoulder surgery that wiped out his entire 2015 season; McCarthy had Tommy John surgery in April 2015.