Dodgers Rotation Notes: Snell, Yamamoto, Sasaki

The Dodgers have made free agent moves in the lineup (Kyle Tucker) and bullpen (Edwin Díaz) to further load up the sport’s best roster. They’ve mostly sat out the rotation, confident in their internal arms.

L.A.’s pitching staff has carried heavy workloads on their runs to consecutive World Series. Jack Harris of The California Post writes that the club plans to keep a close eye on their veteran arms early in the season. That’s particularly true of Blake Snell, who tells Harris that he delayed his offseason throwing program after feeling “exhausted” at the end of the Fall Classic. The two-time Cy Young winner added that while he’s hopeful of being ready for Opening Day, that’s not a guarantee since the team is more focused on making sure he doesn’t put too much stress on his arm in camp.

Snell is among the three to five most talented pitchers in MLB. He’s dominant when healthy but availability has never been his strong suit. Snell has a pair of 180-inning campaigns but hasn’t reached even 130 frames in any of his other seven full seasons. Last year, he missed more than three months between April and the beginning of August with a shoulder issue. He was limited to 11 starts and 61 1/3 innings during the regular season.

He was around when it mattered most, logging 34 innings of 3.18 ERA ball during the World Series run. Snell started one game apiece in the Wild Card Series, Division Series and Championship Series. He worked at least six innings in each, including eight frames of shutout ball with 10 strikeouts in the first game of the NLCS, then came back for two more starts in the World Series.

Snell went five innings in Game 1 and logged 6 2/3 frames in Game 5. He gave up five runs and took the loss in both, but he came back on two days rest for his most important outing of the season. Snell logged an inning and a third out of the bullpen in Game 7, keeping a 4-3 deficit at one run to set up Miguel Rojas’ game-tying homer before coming back for the start of the bottom of the ninth.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto nevertheless outshone Snell in the Fall Classic. He deservedly took home Series MVP honors after getting the win in three of L.A.’s four victories. Yamamoto tossed consecutive complete games in Games 2 of the NLCS and World Series. He went six innings in Game 6, then came back on zero rest for 2 2/3 frames and 34 pitches as the decider went into extras. Yamamoto’s arm was so fatigued by the end of that game that he couldn’t lift his MVP trophy above his head without help from teammates.

Yamamoto won’t have the luxury of a slow spring buildup, as he has already signed on to try to help Japan defend their World Baseball Classic title. He’ll need to be ready for competitive game action when the tournament gets underway on March 6. Shohei Ohtani is also on the Japanese roster, though the team hasn’t announced whether he’ll pitch in the tournament.

Roki Sasaki is not expected to play in the WBC. His first major league season was up and down. He only made 10 appearances and logged 36 1/3 MLB innings during the regular season. Sasaki was out between April and September with a shoulder impingement. The Dodgers used him in short relief in the playoffs. Sasaki managed 10 2/3 innings of one-run ball despite walking five while recording only six strikeouts.

The Dodgers have maintained they view Sasaki as a starter going into 2026. Manager Dave Roberts reiterated as much when speaking with The California Post’s Dylan Hernandez this week, albeit with the note that he’d like the talented young righty to better develop his third pitch. Sasaki used his fastball half the time and his trademark splitter on around a third of his offerings last year. He used a low-80s breaking ball at roughly a 16% clip.

President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman appeared on Dodgers Territory this week and downplayed Sasaki’s need for a third pitch to an extent. “He was able to dominate in NPB with two pitches and frankly, I think he could here as well with being able to execute at a higher level,” Friedman said. “Last year, his delivery was out of whack, velocity was down a little bit. So it’s either adding that third pitch or elevating the pitch-making ability.”

Sasaki’s fastball was in the upper-90s and routinely touched triple digits in Japan. He averaged a solid but more pedestrian 96.1 MPH during his rookie season in the majors. Better health will hopefully lead to an uptick in stuff in year two. Sasaki projects as the fifth or sixth starter in a rotation that would likely also comprise Yamamoto, Snell, Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow and Emmet Sheehan if everyone is available on Opening Day. River Ryan, Gavin Stone and Kyle Hurt should all be back from surgeries that cost them the ’25 season and are talented depth arms on the 40-man roster.