2024 Dodgers in review: Gavin Stone

No one expected great things from Gavin Stone in 2024. For some, he was quite the conundrum.

Let us return to where he was after the 2023 season:

While Stone’s overall major league statline for 2023 is nothing short of awful in limited service, it is worth remembering that Stone remains a rookie for 2024. It is also worth remembering that a majority of the fanbase was prepared to give up on another changeup-heavy pitcher in 2022, Ryan Pepiot, who managed to figure it out and be the most effective Dodgers pitcher in the final months of this season.

What Stone does in 2024 will entirely be up to him, but he should remember that quite a few young arms are looking to make a name for themselves in the rotation next year. A repeat of this year’s performance won’t cut it.

Stone’s mettle was apparent by grabbing a role in the Dodgers rotation from the start of the season with a strong spring training.

In 2024, Stone started locating consistently with his fastball, which paired well with his already-excellent changeup, and added a cutter and slider to this pitch mix. In 2023, in limited action, Stone could get to two strikes but could not consistently put batters away at the major league level.

“This is the command of the fastball that we saw two years ago that was missing a little bit last year,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said of Stone during the seventh inning on the SportsNet LA broadcast. “He’s also added a true cutter and more of a traditional slider to kind of open up the arsenal a little more. We know the changeup is plus-plus. What’s evident is the velocity being back to where it was, and he’s moving the ball around like a big leaguer right now.”

[emphasis added.]

Michael Elizondo / True Blue LA

In a year expected to be dominated by the likes of Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Stone shined like a diamond.

In a Dodgers rotation that in recent years has lacked starters who provide length and reliability, Stone did just that pitching into the sixth inning in ten of his first fifteen starts in 2024. If one was looking for a symbolic example of Stone becoming a rotation stalwart, his uniform number changed from 71 to 35 in early May.

Stone’s pitching was at its best during the first half of the season when opponents had a slash line of .248/.302/.362 against him. Moreover, Stone pitched the team’s only complete game shutout of the year against the White Sox on June 26th — the first of his young career.

While one might be forgiven for taking Stone’s reliably for granted with a dip in effectiveness in the six starts after his complete game. During this stretch, Stone dropped all three earned decisions in this stretch, which saw his ERA rise by about a full run.

Stone rebounded in both duration and effectiveness starting in mid-August with three straight quality starts. At this point, Stone had made 25 starts, making every scheduled start, and led the Dodgers with 140⅓ IP, and also led the team in wins with 11 and had a respectable 3.53 ERA and 3.95 xERA. Unfortunately, his strikeout of Joc Pederson to conclude five innings of work on August 31 in Phoenix would be Stone’s final pitch of his season.

Stone was placed on the injured list with right should inflammation on September 6, the last member of a rotation in which literally everyone went down with injury. Stone was shut down indefinitely with the waning hope that he would return for the postseason run.

On October , Stone’s season cracked, leaving him out of action until 2026 at the earliest after shoulder surgery.

“His shoulder surgery, successful. Identified a lot of stuff that was going on in the shoulder,” manager Dave Roberts said on October 12. “I don’t see him coming back in ‘25.”

No one has publicly released the specifics of Stone’s right shoulder injury. When Stone returns he will be in his age-27 season, likely permanently affecting his earnings and longevity.

Stone’s injury is a shame because he was a rock-solid monument in the Dodgers’ rotation in 2024. Even missing all of September, Stone led the Dodgers in wins, games started, shutouts, and innings pitched, and was second in strikeouts with 116. Overall, batters hit .248/.297/.402 against him in 2024 with a FIP of 4.01 for the year and an ERA+ of 109.

Whether his injury will erode his career prospects or reveal further luster to what was thought to be a diamond of a career is an open question. While Stone was an important part of this world championship team, as with all things, pressure and time will demonstrate the next age of Stone’s career.

2024 particulars

Age: 25

Stats: 11-5, 140⅓ IP, 116 K, 37 BB, 3.53 ERA, 3.94 xERA FIP, 1.211 WHIP, 2.0 fWAR, 1.8 rWAR

Salary: $742,500

Game of the year

In what would be one of the easiest decisions in this review series, Stone’s game of the year was his complete-game shutout against the hapless Chicago White Sox on June 26. The worst thing you could say about Stone that night was that it was hard to see him from my seat.

He yielded only four hits with seven strikeouts getting through the entire game in 103 pitches. It was the first CGSO by a Dodger in over two years and the first CGSO by a rookie Dodger since Hyun Jin Ryu in 2013.

Roster status

Stone has one year, 34 days of service time, and his first year of potential eligibility for salary arbitration is 2027.