{"id":8471,"date":"2026-05-21T16:01:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T16:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=8471"},"modified":"2026-05-21T16:01:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T16:01:53","slug":"dodgers-justin-wrobleski-seizes-opportunity-after-years-of-adversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=8471","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers\u2019 Justin Wrobleski seizes opportunity after years of adversity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

SAN DIEGO \u2014 Justin Wrobleski went through an awful lot to become an overnight sensation.<\/p>\n

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When Wrobleski was a freshman at Clemson, he was riding his scooter to baseball practice one day when a female driver ran a stop sign and hit him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t, thank God, too bad,\u201d Wrobleski says now \u2013 no broken bones, just \u201ca little knee injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing crazy. I got really, really lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he returned from the accident to pitch for Clemson, things did not go very well. He had a 10.38 ERA over 10 games. And that was the end of his time at Clemson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ended up earning a weekend starting spot. Probably wasn\u2019t ready for it,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t know. I was just young. Didn\u2019t throw it great but didn\u2019t throw it bad, but I was told I was throwing it horrible and I started pressing. Ended up having a couple bad starts. They moved me to the bullpen. Didn\u2019t get to throw very much and ended up being told to leave, that it wasn\u2019t a fit for me there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wrobleski wound up taking a big step back to State College of Florida \u2013 where he promptly suffered a broken jaw when he was hit by a ball during the first practice of spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was out for five weeks with my jaw wired shut right as the season started,\u201d Wrobleski says. \u201cI went from throwing 94-95 (mph) to throwing 88-91 because I had lost 20 pounds. Liquid diet for five weeks. That was brutal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

There was more adversity ahead. Wrobleski made a handful of appearances \u201cand COVID hits, the season is shut down.\u201d As a result, the 2020 MLB draft was shortened to five rounds. Wrobleski (a 30th-round pick of the Seattle Mariners out of high school) was expecting to get drafted that summer but his name went uncalled in the shortened draft.<\/p>\n

On to a third college \u2013 Oklahoma State \u2013 where Wrobleski made eight starts \u2026 before injuring his elbow and undergoing Tommy John surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was my college career,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t the end of the adversity he would face.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Wrobleski was just a couple of months into his recovery from Tommy John surgery when the Dodgers picked him in the 11th round of the 2021 draft \u2013 a break Wrobleski calls \u201csuper lucky\u201d because of the Dodgers\u2019 history of developing pitchers post-TJ surgery.<\/p>\n

He progressed through the Dodgers\u2019 farm system and made his major-league debut as a spot starter in 2024. It didn\u2019t go well. He had a 5.70 ERA in eight appearances.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers turned to him again in April 2025 for a spot start after Blake Snell went on the injured list with a shoulder problem. Wrobleski took the mound at Nationals Park and was shelled for eight runs, including two home runs by James Wood. With the Dodgers\u2019 pitching depleted, he was left in the game for five innings and 87 pitches \u2013 then was demoted to Triple-A immediately after.<\/p>\n

It was a pivotal moment for Wrobleski, 25.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe went down to Triple-A and worked really hard with our Triple-A group,\u201d Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes says. \u201cI think he really got punched in the mouth and took that feedback and went down and really worked on it and took it to heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can take it one of two ways. \u2018Well, I\u2019m not good enough\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019m going to make adjustments and work at it.\u2019 To his credit, with his work ethic and the way he goes about his business, he\u2019s done an excellent job of taking all that information and working with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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When Wrobleski returned to Triple-A after that embarrassment, he went to work with pitching coach Dave Anderson on his delivery, taking a risk in the short term that he might not make a quick return to the majors but would emerge as more capable of getting big-league hitters out when he did.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re an up-and-down guy (between the minors and majors), it\u2019s always tough to make changes because you don\u2019t want the big-league club to get upset or whatever,\u201d Wrobleski says. \u201cAfter having a good spring, I was, \u2018Okay, I think there\u2019s stuff I can do to make myself better.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He widened out his delivery, making it \u201cmore linear\u201d with \u201cmore of a move toward home rather than being so rotational.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t creating the angles that I needed to get the miss I needed or the deception I needed or whatever,\u201d he says. \u201cWe were, \u2018Okay, let\u2019s try this.\u2019 I did it for a week then brought it into a game. \u2018Alright, this looks kind of good\u2019 and we looked at the numbers and the approach angle was a little better, the extension was a little better, everything was playing good. Kind of rolled from there. It\u2019s been super good since.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed. Since that drubbing in Washington, Wrobleski has a 3.02 ERA, mostly in relief last year and now as a breakout star in the Dodgers\u2019 starting rotation this year. He will make his eighth start of this season on Friday in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it just speaks to the fact that there is adversity that obviously is never pleasant at the time but it shapes you down the road and it\u2019s very impactful,\u201d Gomes says. \u201cFailures are only failures if you let them be. The adversity is only bad if you allow it to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure his having gone through all those things (in college), \u2018Okay, this (the loss in Washington) is just another bump in the road. I\u2019m going to keep going. I\u2019m not going to crumble.\u2019 And he\u2019s been a huge part of what we\u2019ve been able to do to this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wrobleski has gone 6-1 with a 2.12 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP in his first seven starts \u2013 with a strikeout rate (4.8 per nine innings) straight out of a different era. His success has come with a decidedly old-school approach \u2013 work fast, throw strikes, don\u2019t be afraid of contact.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could call it that,\u201d Gomes said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a very good archetype for success.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the \u2018Three True Outcomes\u201d era of baseball, though, Wrobleski has found himself defending his lack of swing-and-miss even as he retired batters and went deep in games \u2013 he has gone at least six innings in each of his past six starts, completing eight innings in one game and pitching into the ninth in another.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m out there trying to get outs. However I get them, that\u2019s great,\u201d he said after one start. \u201cI think the strikeouts will come. I struck out people last year. That\u2019s not something that\u2019s a crazy worry for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m doing a good job of understanding who I am, understanding the game and where we\u2019re at, understanding the hitter and the situation. \u2026 Continuing to harp on those things that make me good, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The right-hander, who navigated a slew of hurdles on his way to the majors, has made the most of his spot in the rotation this season, going 6-1 with a 2.12 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP in his first seven starts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-based-on-facts-either-observed-and-verified-directly-by-the-reporter-or-reported-and-verified-from-knowledgeable-sources","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nDodgers\u2019 Justin Wrobleski seizes opportunity after years of adversity - Silicon Valley Moving Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=8471\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dodgers\u2019 Justin Wrobleski seizes opportunity after years of adversity - 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