Glasnow dispels setback concern, says he’s ‘fine’
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Alden Gonzalez
LOS ANGELES — Tyler Glasnow, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ oft-injured starting pitcher, on Tuesday downplayed concerns of a setback, one day after manager Dave Roberts revealed Glasnow’s body did not respond well to a recent bullpen session.
Glasnow said his back “got a little tight” after a bullpen session on May 23 — his first since landing on the injured list because of shoulder inflammation 25 days earlier — but stressed that he temporarily stopped throwing off a mound as a precautionary measure. He said he expected to pitch off a mound again before the end of the week.
“I feel totally fine,” Glasnow said. “Totally normal.”
Glasnow, on the IL alongside fellow starters Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki, said his shoulder is “totally fine” but would not pinpoint a return date. Glasnow made five starts before his most recent IL stint, his last one, on April 27, lasting only one inning. He still needs to progress toward facing hitters, then get stretched out enough to rejoin the rotation. Glasnow said he was hopeful that his buildup wouldn’t span the six or so weeks of a traditional one in spring training, but it seems increasingly likely that it will.
“I’m just taking it bullpen by bullpen,” Glasnow said. “Hopefully I can face hitters soon. I’m trying to get out there. I want to be healthy, I want to be in the playoffs. I’m listening to [the Dodgers’ trainers and coaches] and just trying to figure this out as best as I can. Coming back as soon as I can in a healthy way to help the team in the playoffs is my goal.”
Glasnow was absent during last year’s playoffs, when the Dodgers rode a three-man rotation and a deep bullpen to a championship. The 31-year-old right-hander was put on the IL on Aug. 11 because of what was described as elbow tendinitis, then felt discomfort while warming up for a simulated game on Sept. 13 and was diagnosed with an elbow sprain, ending his season.
Follow-up MRIs revealed that Glasnow was dealing only with tendinitis. But he made adjustments in consultation with biomechanical specialists both inside and outside the organization in hopes of remaining healthy, most of it centered on identifying a better “spine angle” to keep his delivery more compact and put less stress on his arm.
It seems to have had the opposite effect.
“I was opening up, so I was just putting a lot of stress on my shoulder,” Glasnow said. “My velo was down, stuff wasn’t good, command was really bad. When it clicked, like anything, it was fine. But I just wasn’t on track and I didn’t know how to fix it because it was just so new. But I was just late on everything. That’s every pitcher’s issue in their delivery, landing late or not being on time. I think it was more late than I’m generally used to. Like, it would be a great long-term fix, but I just don’t think I was doing it correctly.”
Over these past few weeks, Glasnow has essentially focused on marrying two principles — implementing some of the subtle changes that can improve the health of his arm, but also of maintaining his athleticism and throwing more naturally.
“A lot of it is trusting my natural throw and just making sure all the staples of a healthy delivery are in there,” Glasnow said. “I think any time I get out of whack or I’m not stable, I put myself at risk. I think just working with them to try to maybe not make such drastic changes but just get out to where we talk about just be athletic and go pitch.
“Right now, I feel really, really good mechanics-wise. Just be athletic and throw. It’s enabled me to just be myself more now. As I get more on the mound and keep going, I’ll kind of know more.”
The Dodgers traded for Glasnow in December 2023, on the heels of his first full season since Tommy John surgery, then signed him to a five-year extension worth close to $140 million. The 22 starts and 134 innings Glasnow compiled in the subsequent season represented career bests, a testament to the durability issues that have plagued him since his major league debut in 2016.
Now Glasnow has joined Snell, Sasaki and Shohei Ohtani as rehabbing pitchers, all of them progressing relatively slowly in hopes of being at their best for the stretch run.
Glasnow says he believes he’ll return with plenty of time.
“I’m not going to come back like late, late,” he said. “I’m trying to get back as soon as I can; they’re trying to get me back as soon as they can too but in like a healthy way. I default to, ‘Let’s go, I want to pitch now.’ But at this point I just have to trust the professionals, how I’m feeling and how I’m recovering and all that. But we’re both on the same wavelength of, ‘Let’s get you back out as healthy as possible as soon as possible, in a healthy way.'”
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Chase Elliott somehow stole Sunday’s race at Kansas Speedway, where he drove from eighth to the checkered flag during a two-lap overtime sprint to earn a spot in the third round of NASCAR’s playoffs.
It was a wild ending to a race that probably should have been won by Denny Hamlin, who dominated and led 159 laps until a bevy of late issues denied him his chance at career win No. 60 for Joe Gibbs Racing.
The race had a slew of late cautions — Hamlin dropped from the lead to seventh on a slow pit stop — that put Bubba Wallace in position to win the race. A red-flag stoppage for Zane Smith flipping his car set up the final overtime restart and Wallace was holding tight in a door-to-door battle with Christopher Bell for the victory.
Then Hamlin came from nowhere to catch Wallace, who drives for the team Hamlin co-owns with Michael Jordan, and Wallace scraped the wall as he tried to hold off his boss. That’s when Elliott suddenly entered the frame and smashed Hamlin in the door to get past him for his second win of the season.
“What a crazy finish. Hope you all enjoyed that. I certainly did,” NASCAR’s most popular driver told the crowd after collecting the checkered flag.
Elliott joins Ryan Blaney as the two drivers locked into the third round of the playoffs. The field will be cut from 12 drivers to eight after next week’s race in Concord, North Carolina and Elliott said once he got in position for the victory, he wasn’t giving up.
“I wasn’t going to lift, so I didn’t know what was going to happen. I figured at the end of the day, it was what it was at that point,” Elliott said. “Wherever I ended up, I ended up. At that point, we were all committed. Really cool just to be eighth on the restart and somehow win on a green-and-white checkered. Pretty neat.”
Hamlin finished second and was clearly dejected by the defeat. The three-time Daytona 500 winner is considered the greatest driver to never win a Cup title and needed the victory to lock up his spot in the next round of the playoffs. He also has a 60th Cup win set as a major career goal and is stuck on 59 victories.
He drove the final 50-plus laps with his power steering on the fritz.
“Just super disappointing. I wanted it bad. It would have been 60 for me,” Hamlin said. “Obviously got really, really tight with [Wallace], and it just got real tight and we let [Elliott] win.
“Man, I wanted it for my dad. I wanted it for everybody. Just wanted it a little too hard.”
Hamlin was followed his JGR teammates Bell and Chase Briscoe, who were third and fourth.
Wallace wound up fifth and even though the victory would have moved him deeper into the playoffs than he’s ever been in his career, he was satisfied considering how poorly his car was running earlier in the race. He wasn’t even upset with Hamlin, and he shook hands with his boss on pit road.
“To even have a shot at the win with the way we started … you could have fooled me. We were not good,” Wallace said. “Two years ago I’d probably say something dumb [about Hamlin]. He’s a dumbass for that move. I don’t care if he’s my boss or not. But we’re going for the win. I hate that we gave it to Chevrolet there.”
Elliott, in a Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, was the only non-Toyota driver in the top five.
Next up is a playoff elimination race at the hybrid oval/road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where Kyle Larson won a year ago. The playoff field will be cut from 12 drivers to eight following next Sunday’s race.
The four drivers in danger of playoff elimination headed into that race are Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, Reddick and Wallace.
“Obviously there’s only one thing we can do at Charlotte (win), and that’s what we’ll be focused on,” Reddick said.
Rodney Childers, who guided Kevin Harvick to the 2014 Cup Series championship, has finally landed a new job after he was let go as crew chief at Spire Motorsports in April.
Childers will be the crew chief at JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series for the No. 1 Chevrolet, which will be split between Carson Kvapil and Connor Zilisch. It will be Childers’ first time as an Xfinity Series crew chief.
“Rodney’s résumé and career speak for themselves,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr., co-owner of JR Motorsports. “Rodney and I grew up together and have known each other since we were kids. That’s a relationship that has always been close and has remained close to this day. We’ve always had interest in working together in motorsports, and I’m thankful that this opportunity came about and we could bring him into the JRM family.”
Childers worked with Justin Haley at Spire, but the team parted ways with him when both driver and crew chief said the relationship wasn’t working.
Childers won 40 races and a Cup title at Stewart-Haas Racing with Harvick then worked with Josh Berry in 2024 when Harvick retired. That was the final year Stewart-Haas Racing existed.
Also on Saturday, NASCAR confirmed it has parted ways with race director Jusan Hamilton with six races remaining in the season. He is no longer listed as an employee at NASCAR, where his official title was managing director for competition operations.
Hamilton first joined NASCAR as an intern in 2012 and returned in 2016 under various roles. He oversaw NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, pit crew development and the pro iRacing NASCAR divisions as well as serving as a race director.
Hamilton was instrumental in setting both the annual schedule and the schedule for each race weekend. His first event as race director was in 2018 at Pocono Raceway. In 2022, Hamilton became the first Black race director to officiate the Daytona 500.
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