Wolf might miss rest of the season

The Dodgers’ battered pitching staff got more bad news Tuesday when left-hander Randy Wolf said he could be out for the rest of the season.

“There’s a chance,” said Wolf, who has been on the disabled list with shoulder stiffness since July 4. “I have to be realistic. I’m not going to take the ball until I feel perfect. So that’s what I’m going to work for.”

Wolf made a minor league rehabilitation start last week but didn’t pitch well, giving up three runs and six hits in 57 pitches. Afterward he said his left shoulder stiffened again so he underwent a second MRI exam on Tuesday, and though the exam found no damage, it did show the inflammation had returned.

“It’s frustrating,” Wolf said. “We probably went too fast the first time. I probably wasn’t ready to go.”

Doctors aren’t ready to recommend an operation but they did tell Wolf, who missed parts of the last two seasons after reconstructive elbow surgery, not to pick up a ball for at least two weeks.

“That’s a minimum,” said Wolf, who added that there was no timetable beyond that. But if Wolf doesn’t pick up a ball until mid-August, then has no further setbacks, it’s unlikely he’d be ready to return to the rotation until September.

“I’m still relatively young,” said Wolf, who is owed $8 million this season and has a $9-million club option for next summer. “I don’t want to do something stupid just to pitch two games.”

The Dodgers have already lost pitchers Jason Schmidt, Hong-Chih Kuo and Yhency Brazoban to injury this season while reliever Chin-hui Tsao remains on the disabled list with a strained shoulder. And right-hander Derek Lowe, who came out of his last start after four innings with an irritated left hip, could be the next one to go on the shelf depending on what happens today when he throws a pregame bullpen session.

In addition to their pitching woes, the Dodgers were also without second baseman Jeff Kent on Tuesday. Kent strained his left hamstring in the ninth inning of Sunday’s game in Colorado and could miss the three-game series with San Francisco.

“I don’t know how long it’s going to be,” Kent said. “But it’s not going to be long. Two, three days if I had to guess.”

In fact, the Dodgers’ injury problems are so bad, that when catcher Russell Martin showed up Tuesday with the right side of his face swollen that actually passed for good news since the swelling was the result of a wisdom tooth Martin had pulled Monday. “If it became infected,” Martin said, “I would have been out a week.”

Unwilling to part with the team’s top young players, General Manager Ned Colletti made just one deal before the nonwaiver trade deadline, sending switch-hitting infielder Wilson Betemit to the New York Yankees for middle reliever Scott Proctor.

“It was pretty slow,” Colletti said of the trade market. “And when it’s slow like that the teams that are selling off are going to hold people to the end and take advantage if they get a chance.”

Which isn’t to say Colletti wasn’t busy. Among the players the Dodgers were known to have made offers on are Kansas City reliever Octavio Dotel and Texas first baseman Mark Teixeira -- both of whom went to Atlanta -- Chicago White Sox outfielder Jermaine Dye and Oakland starter Joe Blanton.

But in each case the asking price proved too much.

Because Proctor is not expected to report until this afternoon, the Dodgers recalled triple-A outfielder Delwyn Young.

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kevin.baxter@latimes.com