{"id":123410,"date":"2026-06-04T22:10:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T02:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=123410"},"modified":"2026-06-04T22:11:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T02:11:29","slug":"dodgers-reliever-rehab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/06\/04\/dodgers-reliever-rehab\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Dodgers Closer To Begin Rehab Assignment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Los \u00c1ngeles Dodgers right-handed reliever <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/phillev01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Evan Philips<\/a> will begin a rehab assignment Thursday, June 4 at Triple-A Oklahoma City, according to Alex Freedman, the Comets Communications Director. Ironically, this is the first anniversary of Philips&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/30\/dodgers-evan-phillips-tommy-john-surgery\/\" target=\"_self\">Tommy John surgery.<\/a> No word on how long he will be rehabbing, but it appears like the Dodgers are targeting some time after the All-Star Break for his return.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Some more notable items from OKC today:<\/p>\n<p>*Evan Phillips has joined the team to begin a rehab assignment. Today is the one-year anniversary of his Tommy John surgery.<\/p>\n<p>*Hyeseong Kim will start at 3B tonight &#8212; a position he played sporadically in Korea and not since 2020 (per BR).<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Alex Freedman (@azfreedman) <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/azfreedman\/status\/2062654843769049264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 4, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Dodgers Reliever Is Finally Fully Healthy<\/h2>\n<p>The former Dodgers closer has struggled to stay healthy since the end of 2024. This elbow injury kept him off the World Series roster when Los Angeles faced the New York Yankees. The lack of location and velocity was a tell-tale sign that something was wrong. He sat out most of Spring Training last year before the right-hander tried <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/13\/dodgers-relievers-banda-phillips-minor-league-options\/\" target=\"_self\">a brief comeback<\/a> without surgery. However, it didn&#8217;t work, and Phillips landed on the Injured List.<\/p>\n<p class=\"alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBjpbpay38\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 2162px; aspect-ratio: 2162\/3072;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<h2>A New Beginning<\/h2>\n<p>The Dodgers non-tendered the right-hander at the end of 2025 with the full intention of bringing the right-hander back. They <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/02\/11\/dodgers-re-sign-right-handed-reliever-evan-philips\/\" target=\"_self\">signed<\/a> him on a restructured contract knowing that he wouldn&#8217;t be available for much of the season. Philips&#8217; effectiveness has been undeniable when healthy. The underrated reliever who was acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays in September of 2021 has a strikeout rate of over 11 per nine innings.<\/p>\n<p>His two-pitch combination of fastball and sweeper has proven to induce a lot of swing and miss. This accelerated his rise to high-leverage situations and, eventually, to the closer role\u2014a position where he accrued an impressive Earned Run Average of 1.30. If Philips can replicate anywhere near those results when he returns for the stretch run, the Dodgers&#8217; patience will have paid off handsomely.<\/p>\n<h2>Some Ominous News<\/h2>\n<p>This comes off news that <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gratebr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brusdar Graterol<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/09\/26\/dodgers-brock-stewart-shoulder-surgery-out-for-season\/\" target=\"_self\">is injured again<\/a>. The right-handed reliever has not seen a major-league mound since 2024. He had major shoulder surgery and has suffered one setback after another. He surprised some by beginning his own rehab assignment at Triple-A Oklahoma City, only to injure his back. This week, the right-hander announced he underwent surgery to repair it. His return this year is very much in doubt.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, Phillips, on the comeback trail, may be a boost that the Dodgers need.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_123421\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-123421\" style=\"width: 7800px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/06\/USATSI_25990884.webp\" alt=\"Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Evan Phillips comes off the field during the game between the Texas Rangers and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas on April 20, 2025.\" width=\"7800\" height=\"5200\" class=\"size-full wp-image-123421\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/06\/USATSI_25990884.webp 7800w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/06\/USATSI_25990884-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/06\/USATSI_25990884-600x400.webp 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2026\/06\/USATSI_25990884-1200x800.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 7800px) 100vw, 7800px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-123421\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Apr 20, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers relief pitcher Evan Phillips (59) comes off the field during the game between the Texas Rangers and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Globe Life Field. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Los \u00c1ngeles Dodgers right-handed reliever Evan Philips will begin a rehab assignment Thursday, June 4 at Triple-A Oklahoma City, according to Alex Freedman, the Comets Communications Director. Ironically, this is the first anniversary of Philips&#8217; Tommy John surgery. No word on how long he will be rehabbing, but it appears like the Dodgers are targeting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5226,"featured_media":123420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,1071,35],"tags":[3321,2154],"class_list":["post-123410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dodgers","category-mlb","category-news","tag-brusdar-graterol","tag-evan-phillips"],"modified_by":"Augustus Oswald, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123410"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123423,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123410\/revisions\/123423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}