Treinen's Season Ends in Bullpen; Dodgers' Playoff Depth Tested Before October

Blake Treinen's 2026 season ended on a single pitch. The Dodgers right-hander felt something tear in his shoulder while warming up in the bullpen during Saturday's 4-3 win over the Giants and made an immediate painful expression, manager Dave Roberts said. Imaging and injured-list placement followed. For a team with a five-day break before playoff baseball begins, losing a reliable arm in the final 48 hours of the regular season compounds an already precarious relief situation.

Treinen, 38, had been reinstated from the injured list just 24 days earlier on September 2 after missing nearly three months with right elbow inflammation that began June 20. His shoulder—the same one that required surgery and cost him the entire 2023 season—flared during that previous absence. "It just popped up. That was kind of what landed him on the IL before, so it just unfortunately showed its head again," Roberts explained. The injury pattern suggests structural fragility rather than a fresh trauma; the shoulder had already demonstrated instability this year, and it failed again under the stress of a simple warmup.

Over 36 appearances and 29⅔ innings in 2026, Treinen posted a 4-1 record with a 3.64 ERA and 31 strikeouts—respectable surface numbers for a depth reliever in his 12th major-league season and sixth with Los Angeles. But those innings came in chunks; he was unavailable for three months in the middle of the year. The Dodgers had banked on him as a low-leverage option heading into October, someone to absorb non-critical outs. That margin is gone.

For playoff bullpen totals and reliever innings props, Treinen's absence reshuffles Los Angeles' usage patterns. The team now must promote a fill-in—likely a September callup or minor-league depth option—and compress the available innings across a shallower talent pool. In matchups where the Dodgers would have sent Treinen to handle the fourth or fifth inning of a blowout or tied game, a more valuable arm now shoulders that load. Dodgers relief innings props should tick upward for high-leverage relievers (Evan Phillips, Chris Hatcher) and downward for middle-relief depth, as the playoff rotation faces tighter management of its bullpen capacity. Games where the Dodgers finish with a comfortable lead or deficit will see elevated usage of less-proven arms, raising variance on team-total overs by forcing earlier substitutions.