Dodgers left-hander Blake Snell likely won’t be returning to the club soon. Manager Dave Roberts told members of the media, including Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, that the southpaw “didn’t feel great” after a recent catch session. He will be shut down and it’s possible he’ll be sent for more imaging. He’ll be re-examined when the club gets back to Los Angeles, per Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times. The Dodgers are at Wrigley tonight, then have an off-day Thursday before starting a new homestand on Friday.
Snell started the season healthy but landed on the injured list after just two starts due to shoulder inflammation. An MRI at that time didn’t find any structural damage and the club was hopeful that he wouldn’t miss too much time. It’s now been three weeks since his last appearance and this latest shutdown figures to extend his timeline.
More information will likely be revealed in the coming days as the Dodgers conduct more tests but it’s obviously not encouraging for him to have any kind of setback or recurrence of discomfort. The Dodgers signed him to a five-year, $182MM deal in the offseason, though with some deferrals. He got that big payday on account of strong production on a rate basis. He has only twice pitched more than 130 innings in a season, with both of those seasons resulting in Cy Young awards.
The Dodgers surely were aware that they might have a few IL stints from Snell over the course of his contract, based on past precedent. In other seasons, he has managed to post decent results around his injuries. That was the case last year. He followed up his 2023 Cy Young season with an uneven campaign in 2024. He went on the IL a couple of times due to groin issues and had a 9.51 ERA at the end of June, but then dominated the rest of the way with a 1.23 ERA in the final three months.
That was an extreme example of a general trend in Snell’s career, as he has almost always been a slow starter and strong finisher. For his career, he has a 3.92 first half ERA but a 2.39 ERA in the second half. Time will tell if this is a significant ailment or just another instalment of Snell’s typical magic. The Dodgers surely care more about Snell’s ability to contribute in October, so it makes sense to be cautious with anything at this time of year.
Snell is one of a number of Dodger starters on the injured list. Each of Emmet Sheehan, Kyle Hurt, River Ryan and Gavin Stone are out after undergoing major arm surgeries last year. Clayton Kershaw underwent knee and foot surgery and is still working his way back. Tony Gonsolin suffered a back injury during spring training.
Right now, the healthy rotation consists of Tyler Glasnow, Dustin May, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki. Gonsolin and Kershaw are both currently on rehab assignments and could return in the coming weeks, though it’s a bit short-handed for now, especially with the club keeping Yamamoto and Sasaki on weekly pitching schedules. Ben Casparius is starting a bullpen game tonight after the Dodgers used six relievers in last night’s extra-innings loss.
Photo courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez, Imagn Images
that hurts
As the beatles said, money can’t buy you love.
That Dodgers pitching lab!
Covid Commenter Blake got his money, so he’s all G….
As a fan, speedy recovery sir.
What Dodger in recent memory has NOT had a significant injury …. Geez
Orel Hershiser! What do I win?
Orel was made out of rubber, dude was consistent!
One of the nicest guys around too, Acoss!
Orel seemed very nice the few times I heard him calling Dodgers games. Glad to hear he was a good one!
Not one of the nicest guys when he was on the mound, though. The Bulldog!
You should expand that to “what pitcher” in MLB “has NOT………”
I wish the bottom of the lineup would be shutdown.
They have been.
Hahahahahaha
I laugh at every one of your comments, King
This is why you sign 7 or 8 SP to be able to weather the injuries. Great teams like LA does it. Poverty teams like ATL don’t.
You sound like the type who got beat up a lot as a kid.
Tigers – that may have been yesterday though!
Sick burn. Now be a good boy and piss off.
ATL is top 6 payroll. Hardly poverty.
I have been railing against the one size fits all smug solutions that all these armchair GMs are oozing.
“That team is cheap!” is the most common. no doubt that that is true for some teams. it’s a business. but for others, fans have the benefit of 20-20 hindsight and in their world, every team should have been seriously in the Soto sweepstakes and stockpiling aces. if low payroll team had managed to sign Snell when he was available, those fans would be groaning about how they knew he wasn’t worth the contract. can’t win.
there’s a good amount of risk in any contract. if being a successful GM was easy as people seem to believe — teams could get quality GMs for peanuts.
The Smell signing was not a good one!!
Well of course.
This is what the depth was signed for. We knew this would happen. Kershaw should be coming back in a few weeks and Gonsolin is expected in the next week.
Miles: I hate to say it, but how long before Kershaw goes back on the IL after hurting his shoulder or lat or oblique or…
Well, dude, we just don’t know.
I’m being optimistic for the time being but I fully understand where you’re coming from.
Most expensive 2 starts in history
“Imma git mines”
Best wishes to Snell, but he’s nothing more than some well paid slapdick prospect at this point.
😉
I always find myself checking on Xavier to see how he’s doing. I don’t know why.
Me too. I root for the kid, no doubt Smelly! I think he would be the current Arraez-role but at 2B if we didn’t make either trade.
You sure? ..trevor say hi
Nah, Steven Strasburg was more expensive.
If Snell makes another start. Old Strasburg made 8 starts, so $30.6M per start.
Guess I’m a horrible pessimist about setbacks to shoulder issues.
Conforto contract playing out as expected as well
Both of the former Giants are beating LA from within!
“Typical magic” bullet dodged.
Who could have seen this coming?
The Dodgers have the money to take higher risk higher reward pitchers
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the Dodgers approach, the record proves it, but they will have some contracts that implode.
And that’s why there needs to be a hard cap (and a floor). There’s about 20 other teams that can’t afford to waste $50 million a year on players that either get hurt or don’t pan out.
Good luck with that.
dm, there def needs to be a cap and floor, but won’t be, unfortunately. The Tigers are a perfect example. They try to spend what they can, but spend about 150-200 million less than LA. And that’s ridiculous. Meanwhile, there are cheap owners that only care about their profit because having a payroll (sometimes) well under 100 million is ridiculous with what these players demand.
MLB forces contract assignment back to the giants
He’ll dominate once he comes back healthy. Would love to see him vs. Padres offense after all the IL stints finish.
straight: Snell seems to be at his best during the second half, so this will be a nice rest until it’s showtime.
Yeah, he will. I wonder if he dominates in the second half because he’s raring and ready to go finally while everyone else is wearing down from the long season.
Yeah, I kinda had the same thought. Unintentional load management.
Elder scrolls oblivion remaster just came out and Snell hits the IL? Is this just scripted now?
Guess his shoulder feels good enough to stream on Twitch 18 hours a day!
His last start was the day before the return of Verdansk.
nice catch
Dodgers don’t sign anyone with a clean bill of health, it’s actually a negative for them
Ned Coletti?
@freddie: Nah, that’s just super troll blackpink/Joel/deuce of cards.
“They really haven’t looked that good this year anyway.”
The Dodgers are 16 & 8 and looming large. More absolute proof that Joel has no idea what the **** he’s talking about.
Makes me laugh that blackpink/Joel/deuce of cards thinks he’s fooling anyone here w/his screen name shenanigans. “An idiot by any other name…….”
“… is still an idiot.”
Had to finish it, and not sorry I did.
So he changes to ATIB. LMAO!
“A BITA by any name…”
“….is still an idiot.”
A mere write-off with the 8 billion TV deal if serious enough to miss the year and playoffs.
It would take a ton of stars being declared out for ’25 early in year to sweat missing the postseason.
At least he didn’t drop a statue on his foot
(the bathroom incident with the Rays)
Losing Snell for any length of time is obviously not good but LAD has plenty of arms. Injuries–especially pitching–hit most teams. The teams with depth survive it.
Sucks for LA but we all know Snell will have a 1.00 ERA in the 2nd half. It’s kind of his thing.
Dodgers don’t care. They are playing for October. They wil get by fine without him and still win the NL West.
The Dodgers won’t win the west if they can’t hit.
Winning the division isn’t a giving. The division is very loaded.
The Dodgers still have plenty of pitching. “What, me, worry?” Nah. They could always trade for a Bassitt or Gausman here pretty soon.
Injured twitch streaming. This is the future of baseball.
Tune in to the TwILtch channel to watch Blake play Skyrim and order pizzas! Only $15 a month, subscribe now!
This is why Roki signing with the dodgers made no sense. Among other things, there is a training problem in the organization with all the pitcher injuries.
Darvish, Musgrove, Hoeing, Brito, Waldron, Reynolds. Now that is pitching training par excellence.
Look at recent history. Dodgers have way more pitching injuries. All that depth and they have a bullpen game in April.
Yeah they might as well give up.
LOLOLOLOLOL
You have no idea what you’re talking about, but we all appreciate your nonsensical posts purely for their comedic value. You be you, Joel. Carry on champ.
For the record, I don’t think ATIB is Joel. Joel usually just sticks to baseball. I think this guy is a troll here to defame Joel.
Eh, whatever. Not like i know the guy, Iggy!
You’re correct. This is Spoofer Joel.
Posey was smart not pursuing Snell. Many questioned why Posey didn’t try to sign Snell
The LA Deferrals now get to think about how they aren’t benefiting from all the $$$ & years they gave Snell
Who can say GIANTS dodgered a bullet with Snell ?
But they did. Snell is a complete headcase. He’s not a dependable ace between injuries and not a full innings load. He got two Cy Youngs, but outside of that he doesn’t have much…
Outside of 2 CY’s “he doesn’t have much”
Ok if you bother to look at stats he has some other quality years albeit on less than full seasons due to some short IL stints.
Most pitchers would take 2 CY’s and be good with that but, I guess your standards are higher based on your career WAR?
He’s decent but he survives through 5 innings. Most aces go longer. He’s barely pitched 200 innings in a season. I dont find him economical at all. It’s a strain on the bullpen
His highest is 180 innings his 2 Cy Young seasons. Outside of those, he has barely pitched 100 innings. That’s not ace-like by any means. It’s not about WAR (as that isn’t a good stat for pitchers), but more about workload and being economical. You can easily tell he gets worn pitching 90 to 100 pitches through 5 innings. It’s a warning sign all around.
Cora – do a quick check on just how many other SPs are exceeding say, 160 ip to see if you criticisms and judgment about how many innings an “ace” pitches every years these days.
As you see how relatively few SP exceed thst amount, filter out those that their other stats qualify them as “ace” material and see what you have left.
The game has changed – good or bad – and a SP that lasts 5+ with a lead because he limited the other team the majority of the time is in the conversation for “ace”.
I know not all pitchers pitch 200 innings anymore, but compare Snell’s career average innings pitched with other so-called aces and tell me if that’s economical?
Cora,
Now you are fine tuning and coming around to at least putting Snell into the “ace” category by limiting your criticism to his not going as many innings as other “aces” for you grading scale.
His innings are what they are and every other “ace” caliber pitchers stats are what they are.
At least he is at least the least “economical” ace now, but an “ace” nonetheless.
I’m putting him in that category based on what you told me. I think he has the stuff but he isn’t economical. He’s not the ace I’d spend money on, that’s for sure. With his generally low innings count, injury history, and even his character, I wouldn’t want him. Too expensive for the amount of time he pitches. He honestly has really only had 2 to 3 great seasons.
Call him an ace or not, I don’t see him dependable. He’s nearly a 4 inning guy to get to the bullpen quickly.
Dodgers will just sign all the good pitchers in the winter.
All they need to do is win the NL West and have five healthy starters at the end of September. Snell might as well rest it for another month if he isnt feeling right. When he is healthy and is pitching well he is one of the best.
In October, only 4 starters are needed. The Dodgers won it all with 3….
If only they had a DH who could pitch.
You’re saying L.A. is cursed land, eh? Interesting take…
Time and time again, Blake Snell has proven he’s not a dependable ace. Two Cy Young seasons, but outside of that, he’s just not dependable. Even when healthy, he walks too many guys and doesn’t pitch the inning load a true ace would. I knew whoever signed him was going to pay.
They got Borassed with a payroll bandit. Will he end up as another Strassburg or Rendon?
It was a better contract than Rendon for sure, but Snell just isn’t economical. He barely gets through 5 innings most days
But whoever signed Snell knew something was gonna happen. He’s just not dependable
Cora – you should have shared this before he was signed!
Raise your hands if your shocked, shocked that this happened.
The Dodgers are lucky to be one game out of first because they suck right now.
A new level of stupidity has been reached.
I’m a Dodgers fan and they suck right now.
Regardless of your allegiance, the fact that the Dodgers are 16-9 and a half game behind The Friars speaks for itself. It’s April 23. Relax.
Excuse me a full game behind…
Nice.
Gonsolin is ready to go. he’s alredy made 4 starts in AAA, solid #s. this is the perfect time to bring him back to the majors
How was his start today? I suppose I could look, just wondered if you or somebody else saw or knew…
5ip 2er
79 pitches
Nice. Thanks binger!
Dodgers seem to have a lot of pitchers who can’t stay healthy. They must be deferring their actual production until later.
Snell will end up as another payroll bandit. They got Borassed. How do you think this guy will age? At what point will they say he needs a TJ?
This one belongs to the Reds with his deferred jokes again. What is with that guy?
The Dodgers have like 15 starters so he can take his time to return when they need him in October.