PHOENIX — Tony Gonsolin has learned he has something in reserve. The Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander’s 84th and final pitch was the second-hardest one he would throw on Sunday, a 95.7 mph fastball. The only one faster (95.9) came an inning earlier in the fourth against the Arizona Diamondbacks, when he tried to blow strike three past outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. The velocity is back.
Gonsolin has shown an ability post-surgery to keep something back for big spots. Just look at his last start on Tuesday against the Miami Marlins, when he reared back for 96.8 mph with two strikes against Ronny Simon, and 96 mph a pitch later. It was his hardest pitch since 2020. In the first inning of that start, he reared back for 95 to retire Kyle Stowers.
That’s a big jump when Gonsolin needs it. For contrast, consider that on Sunday, he averaged 93.5 mph and dipped as low as 91.5 mph.
Tony has a wide fastball velo spread now. Seems to be saving the 95 MPH like this for when he needs it. Nice. pic.twitter.com/Zyj2TmAisg
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) May 6, 2025
Gonsolin has looked like his old self through three starts in his return from Tommy John surgery, with Sunday perhaps his strongest outing to date. He delivered five scoreless innings against the Diamondbacks as the Dodgers capped off their 10-day road trip with an 8-1 win.
It’s easy to forget about Gonsolin despite his status as a former All-Star. But if he’s pitching like this and touching these kinds of velocities, he’s far more than just a bridge until the Dodgers get some of their pitching depth back.
“It’s in there,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think that what he’s doing right now is a sign of (being an All-Star in) 2022, and also, you have the experience of a guy that is seasoned, really knows what he’s capable of.”
“As these last three starts have shown, I can do it,” Gonsolin said. “I can create miss when I need to. Just missing that going deeper in the game, so hopefully we can get one of those really soon.”
Every little bit helps. Gonsolin’s stuff didn’t quite bounce back initially when coming off of surgery, but the back injury he suffered in the week before the end of spring training allowed him the chance to keep working through his delivery. Sometime a month ago, something clicked. The velocity is back, far better than it was when he was pitching “with half an arm” and making two months of starts in 2023 with an ulnar collateral ligament he knew was torn.
“The shapes and the velos and everything around my stuff has really come around,” Gonsolin said.
So much of the conversation around Roki Sasaki has been shaped around his fastball — namely, the shape of the pitch itself.
“It’s not a shape that’s going to generate a lot of swing-and-miss,” pitching coach Mark Prior said last week. “On anybody. We know that. But he’s trying to effectively get outs as best he can.”
That made life difficult even before Friday, when circumstances aligned to challenge Sasaki. The roof was open on a warm day in Phoenix. The ball was flying. His breaking stuff was not. And, pitching on five days’ rest for the first time in his rookie season, he didn’t have the velocity he wanted early, even for his new standards. A potent Diamondbacks lineup crushed his fastball — five of the ones they hit came off the bat at 100 mph or harder. They didn’t swing and miss at the pitch once.
Sasaki’s fastball appears to be a real problem. The quickest solution might be rediscovering his velocity, which was already down on average last season in Japan. Even when he ratcheted it up to 101 mph through a combination of adrenaline and brute force in his Tokyo debut, it came with virtually no command.
The Dodgers supported Sasaki’s desire to retrain his velocity this spring, “but he also felt like it affected his command tremendously in those first couple outings,” Prior said. “So it’s something that we made a decision to move away from.”
Sasaki said Friday he wasn’t dialing back the fastball velocity for command’s sake. The fastball has been in the strike zone, but was hit hard and still hasn’t been commanded all that well. He maxed out the pitch at 97.5 mph in the outing, and hasn’t topped 98 mph since April 12, his fourth outing of the season.
“Just really still in this process of finding out what the root cause (is), working with my coaches, talking to people about this,” Sasaki said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I’m not quite exactly sure and can’t really state exactly the single reason.”
That mystery will continue in the major leagues. Roberts pushed back on the notion that Sasaki would be better served reworking on his fastball in a minor-league setting, saying that optioning the 23-year-old right-hander is not “in any of our minds right now.”
“There’s nothing more impactful than going through a particular experience,” Roberts said. “He’s going through some struggles right now. Major League hitters tell you what adjustments you need to make. Coaches can tell you things. He can think some things. But ultimately, you can make adjustments and he will make adjustments given how the hitters respond. I think you learn that by doing that here.”
When Blake Snell boarded the team’s flight to Atlanta to start this 10-day road trip, that was considered a positive sign for the two-time Cy Young winner’s progress. Plans were set for Snell to start a throwing progression, his second time trying to ramp up after landing on the injured list with left shoulder inflammation.
That didn’t happen. First, Snell was dealing with an illness that kept him from the ballpark for at least one day while the team was in Miami. Plans were pushed to Sunday. Snell didn’t throw on Sunday, either. His shoulder is still bothering him, Roberts said Sunday morning.
Snell was already scheduled to meet with Dr. Neal ElAttrache on Monday to check on his progress. While Roberts said he didn’t expect Snell to go in for another round of imaging — MRIs have shown no structural damage — that visit should provide some clarity.
The fact that he hasn’t restarted throwing and is still feeling discomfort should be concerning. Right?
“I can answer that question more once he sees our team docs,” Roberts said.
Tyler Glasnow is also expected to visit with ElAttrache on Monday, albeit with more encouraging news. Glasnow recently resumed his throwing progression after landing on the shelf with shoulder inflammation.
Beating both of them back to the rotation is Clayton Kershaw, who threw four innings and 57 pitches for Triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday afternoon. His surgically-repaired left knee and left big toe have held up. His fastball touched 89.1 mph. All indications are that he’ll be back on the mound at Dodger Stadium on Sunday against the Angels, the first day he’s eligible to come off the 60-day injured list.
Emmet Sheehan has also cleared an important threshold in his return from Tommy John surgery. He faced Tommy Edman among other hitters on Thursday at Camelback Ranch, throwing approximately 40 pitches. Just 12 months have passed since Sheehan underwent surgery (which included an internal brace), but now he’s “a couple weeks out” from starting a rehab assignment, Roberts said.
Odds and Ends
- Edman’s right ankle is not responding well to treatment, Roberts said, and it’s giving the utility man trouble when running. So it will not be a minimum stint on the shelf. That buys extra time for Hyeseong Kim and James Outman to stake their claims on the roster. Edman and Teoscar Hernández are slated for live at-bats next week at Dodger Stadium.
- Evan Phillips wound up getting an MRI on his right arm, after all. He has right elbow inflammation, and it’ll be at least a couple of weeks before he can start a throwing progression. He, like Edman, won’t have a minimum stint on the IL.
- Michael Kopech’s first rehab outing of the year couldn’t have produced worse results. He threw just three strikes, walking all five batters he faced. That made Sunday an easy bar to clear, but an encouraging one nonetheless, as he touched 99.7 mph and struck out a pair of hitters in a scoreless inning. Kopech is on the IL with a shoulder injury.
(Top photo of Roki Sasaki: Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)