Dodgers manager Dave Roberts spoke to reporters, including Jack Harris of the California Post, and provided some updates about the players on the roster and their health or lack thereof. Perhaps most notably, the skipper said left-hander Blake Snell is making a bit of progress in his ramp-up but is probably running out of time to be ready for Opening Day.
The Dodgers won the World Series a few months ago but did so with a lopsided pitching staff. The bullpen was fairly shaky, so they leaned hard on their starters, even using them in relief. Snell tossed five innings in the first game of the World Series, 6 2/3 in the fifth game, then an inning and a third out of the bullpen in the seventh game. In January, Snell admitted that he was exhausted by the end of the series.
He and the club are planning for a deliberate buildup here in camp, focused more on the long term than Opening Day. That’s a luxury the Dodgers can afford since the roster is so strong that they can downplay the importance of regular season games, making sure their players are focused on being healthy in October. With this approach in mind, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was the only pitcher on the roster to throw at least 113 innings last year.
There’s no real reason for Snell and the Dodgers to push for him to be ready for Opening Day. The rotation should still be strong even without him in it. Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow and Emmet Sheehan should have four spots locked. Roki Sasaki will likely take the fifth. Guys like River Ryan, Ben Casparius, Justin Wrobleski, Kyle Hurt, Gavin Stone or Landon Knack could step up to make starts, if needed.
Turning to the bullpen, Roberts also said right-hander Brusdar Graterol is in a “holding pattern” and has not thrown off a mound lately. It was already known that he wouldn’t be ready for Opening Day but it’s notable that he’s still not making much progress.
Graterol was a key piece of the Dodger bullpen from 2020 to 2023, posting a 2.69 earned run average over 173 2/3 innings, but has hardly thrown for the past two years. Shoulder problems and a hamstring strain capped him at seven outings in 2024. Surgery on that shoulder wiped out his 2025 and it seems he’s still not fully over the hump. Similar to the Snell situation, the Dodgers can afford to not rush him and let him get to full health, but it would be encouraging to see some progress.
Roberts also noted that right-hander Bobby Miller has not yet thrown off a mound this spring due to some unspecified arm/shoulder issue. He is hoping to ramp up in the next few weeks but that is presumably contingent on the issue subsiding.
Miller is a wild card on the roster. He seemed to break out in 2023, making his major league debut with a 3.76 ERA in 124 1/3 innings. But he posted an ugly 8.52 ERA in 2024 and then spent most of 2025 on optional assignment with a 5.66 ERA in Triple-A. He was moved from the rotation to the bullpen in July but his results didn’t improve, with a 5.91 ERA after that switch. He struck out 28.6% of batters faced in that relief role but also gave out walks at a big 13.2% clip. He still has a couple of options, so the Dodgers can keep tinkering with him in the minors as long as they continue to deem him worthy of a spot on the 40-man.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images
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Snell has found a way to avoid the April-early May swoon – just be on the IL “ramping up” instead of on the mound during games being beaten up.
It should work for him. He and Glasnow staying at 100 innings for regular season might be a good recipe. Now if only some of the other 29 teams could afford to pay top dollar for 100 innings / year!