Blake Snell had a delayed spring ramp-up after dealing with offseason arm fatigue. The two-time Cy Young winner will begin the season on the 15-day disabled list, though he expressed hope that he won’t miss the regular season.
Snell threw a 15-pitch bullpen session Thursday, his first mound work of the spring. He said after that he aims for his season to start at the end of April (check with Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic and Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register). Snell said he’s actually at the beginning of what could be a typical six-week build in the Spring.
Manager Dave Roberts was less willing to point to a specific timeline. Roberts pointed to the team’s dynamic talent by noting that they “have the luxury of trying to err on the side of caution.” That’s the standard approach for the Dodgers when it comes to regular season injuries. Their roster is so stacked that they enter each season with incredibly strong playoffs. They can have players skip several regular seasons starting with the goal of being available later in the year when the games are meaningful.
Snell’s 2025 campaign was a case in point. He started just 11 games and threw 61 1/3 innings in the regular season because of shoulder inflammation. He was firing on all cylinders in October, however, working 34 frames of 3.18 ERA ball during the offseason. Snell has had excellent starts in the first three playoff rounds – one each in the Wild Card Series, the Division Series and the NLCS. The Blue Jays found some success against him in their World Series debut, though Snell recorded four key outs in Game 7 to help set the stage. Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s extra-inning heroics.
Yamamoto is the obvious choice to take the ball against the Diamondbacks on Opening Day, although the Dodgers have yet to make an official announcement. (They may be waiting to see how Yamamoto’s schedule pans out during the World Baseball Classic.) Tyler Glasnow will follow. Shohei Ohtani he is not entering games during the WBC, but is throwing side sessions and is expected to be in the Opening Day rotations.
Roki Sasaki struggled with his orders through the start of Spring Training, walking five batters in 3 1/3 innings. That led to the Dodgers shaking things up, moving him to the minor leagues against the White Sox prospects on Tuesday. Sasaki struck out nine without issuing any walks and threw 59 pitches in that back-to-back appearance. Roberts confirmed that the 24-year-old will open the season in the MLB rotation, telling MLB.com’s Sonja Chen and other reporters that he “sees a world where (Sasaki) doesn’t leave us as a starter.”
Gavin Stone joins Snell on the injured list to open the season. That all but confirms that Emmett Sheehan it will find a place to rotate. They can carry a nine-man bullpen — Ohtani doesn’t count against the 13-pitcher limit as a two-way player — or turn to another Justin Wrobleski or Ryan River circling a circle of six people. They will definitely go to the six-man rotation at some point but may be content with a five-man team for the first week of the regular season as they have off days on March 29 and April 2.
