Dodgers Sign Jake Cousins, Place Bobby Miller On 60-Day IL
12:25pm: Cousins is guaranteed $950K and can earn an additional $50K via incentives, Ardaya reports.
12:13pm: The Dodgers have signed reliever Jake Cousins to a major league contract, as first indicated on the MLB.com transaction log. The Frontline client will miss most or all of the 2026 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery last June but is controllable via arbitration through 2028. Right-hander Bobby Miller, who didn’t pitch this spring due to shoulder troubles, moves to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man roster spot. (Players cannot be signed directly to the 60-day IL, so Miller will head to the 60-day in Cousins’ place, but Cousins will hit the 60-day IL himself when the Dodgers next need a 40-man spot.)
Cousins, 31, has pitched in parts of four major league seasons. The cousin of NFL quarterback Kirk Cousins has suited up for the Brewers and Yankees to this point in his career, missing bats at huge rates and showing strong ground-ball tendencies but also battling repeated injuries and shaky command. Cousins has pitched 90 2/3 MLB innings, fanned more than 32% of his opponents, kept 47% of batted balls against him on the ground — and walked nearly 15% of the batters he’s faced. His career earned run average sits at a tidy 2.78.
Beyond last year’s UCL surgery, Cousins has been limited in recent years by shoulder inflammation (twice), a pec strain, a biceps strain and right elbow effusion. He’s never pitched 50 innings in a professional season but has consistently been effective when he’s been able to take the mound. He has a career 3.34 ERA in the minors with similarly impressive strikeout numbers. Cousins is a two-pitch reliever who’s averaged 95.3 mph on his sinker in his career and 82.5 mph on a wicked slider he throws at a whopping 61.2% clip.
At best, Cousins will be an option for the Dodgers late in the 2026 season and perhaps in the postseason, where his potent bat-missing ability could give Los Angeles skipper Dave Roberts an intriguing, under-the-radar option. For the time being, he’s a multi-year reclamation project whose name Dodgers fans can tuck away in the back of their minds.
The Dodgers also made a number of largely expected IL placements. Tommy Edman (recovering from ankle surgery) was placed on the 10-day IL. Pitchers Brock Stewart (recovery from shoulder surgery), Gavin Stone (shoulder inflammation), Blake Snell (shoulder fatigue) and Landon Knack all hit the 15-day IL.
Knack is the lone surprise on the list. The Dodgers haven’t previously indicated that he’s dealing with an injury, and the transaction log does not list a specific injury designation. Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reports that Knack is dealing with an intercostal strain. It’s not clear how much time he’s expected to miss, but he’ll be down for at least the first couple weeks of the year.
Latest On Blake Snell’s Timeline
Blake Snell has had a delayed spring ramp-up after experiencing offseason arm fatigue. The two-time Cy Young winner is now certain to begin the season on the 15-day injured list, though he expressed hope he won’t miss too much of the regular season.
Snell threw a 15-pitch bullpen session on Thursday, his first mound work of the spring. He said afterward that he’s aiming to make his season debut by the end of April (links via Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic and Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register). Snell said he’s essentially at the beginning of what would be a usual six-week Spring Training buildup.
Manager Dave Roberts was less eager to identify a specific timeline. Roberts pointed to the team’s rotation talent in noting that they “have the luxury of trying to err on the side of caution.” That’s the usual approach for the Dodgers when it comes to regular season injuries. Their roster is so loaded that they enter each season with overwhelmingly strong playoff odds. They can afford to have players skip a few regular season starts with an eye towards having them available later in the year when the games are more meaningful.
Snell’s 2025 campaign was an example of that. He only made 11 starts and threw 61 1/3 innings during the regular season because of shoulder inflammation. He was firing on all cylinders in October, though, working 34 frames of 3.18 ERA ball in the postseason. Snell had a trio of exceptional starts in the first three playoff rounds — one each in the Wild Card Series, Division Series and NLCS. The Blue Jays found some success against him over his two World Series starts, though Snell recorded a pivotal four outs in relief in Game 7 to help set the stage for Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s extra-inning heroics.
Yamamoto is the obvious choice to take the ball against the Diamondbacks on Opening Day, though the Dodgers haven’t made an official announcement. (They’re presumably waiting to see how Yamamoto’s schedule maps out during the World Baseball Classic.) Tyler Glasnow will follow. Shohei Ohtani isn’t pitching in games during the WBC, but he’s throwing side sessions and expected to be in the Opening Day rotation.
Roki Sasaki has battled his command over two Spring Training starts, walking five batters in 3 1/3 innings. That led the Dodgers to shake things up, pitching him in a minor league outing against White Sox prospects on Tuesday. Sasaki struck out nine without issuing any walks and threw 59 pitches in that backfield appearance. Roberts reiterated that the 24-year-old will open the season in the MLB rotation, telling Sonja Chen of MLB.com and other reporters he ” just (doesn’t) see a world where (Sasaki) doesn’t break with us as a starter.”
Gavin Stone is joining Snell on the season-opening injured list. That all but ensures that Emmet Sheehan will land a rotation spot. They could carry a nine-man bullpen — Ohtani doesn’t count against the 13-pitcher limit as a two-way player — or turn to one of Justin Wrobleski or River Ryan to round out a six-man rotation. They’ll inevitably go to a six-man rotation at some point but might be content with a five-man group for the first week of the regular season since they have off days on March 29 and April 2.
Dodgers Notes: Snell, Graterol, Miller
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
Dodgers Notes: Ohtani, Snell, Edman
Shohei Ohtani was on the mound for the final out of the last World Baseball Classic, striking out then-teammate Mike Trout to take home the trophy. The 2026 edition of the event won’t feature Ohtani the pitcher. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters, including Alden Gonzalez of ESPN, that the Japanese right-hander will not be pitching in the WBC. Roberts added that it was Ohtani’s decision.
Though Roberts said the team “absolutely” would’ve worked out Ohtani pitching in the tournament if he wanted to (per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register), recent developments around WBC insurance may have thrown a wrench into the situation. Evan Drellich of The Athletic noted Ohtani was unlikely to be covered as a pitcher, meaning he couldn’t have pitched in the WBC regardless of his personal preference. The insurance issues have led Team Puerto Rico to consider removing themselves from the event.
Ohtani will still be on Team Japan as a DH. Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic relayed that the righty said he’ll be ready to pitch to open the regular season. Ohtani didn’t pitch at all in 2024 as he recovered from elbow surgery. A shoulder procedure at the conclusion of that season kept him off the mound until June of this past year. Ohtani made 14 starts for the Dodgers in 2025. He delivered a 2.87 ERA across 47 innings. Ohtani wasn’t as dominant in the playoffs, though he did toss six innings in three of his four outings, something he did just once in the regular season.
Health tends to be the main question mark for L.A.’s rotation, and Blake Snell is taking steps to make sure he feels right in 2026. The talented left-hander told reporters, including Ardaya, that he’s taking a more deliberate approach to building up strength this offseason. “Last year, I was rushing,” Snell said. “I wanted to pitch so bad.”
After signing a massive five-year, $182MM deal, Snell went down with shoulder inflammation just two starts into his Dodgers tenure. He posted eight walks to just four strikeouts in those two games. “Just never felt great, never felt what the normal (is) I’ve felt my whole career,” Snell said. He returned in August and looked like himself, piling up strikeouts and keeping opposing offenses off the board. The lefty limited the Reds, Phillies, and Brewers to two earned runs over 21 innings in the playoffs. The Blue Jays tagged him for 10 earned runs over three appearances, but Snell’s final postseason line still looks solid.
Even with the slower buildup, “the plan” is for Snell to be ready for Opening Day, per Sonja Chen of MLB.com. If Snell isn’t ready by late March, Roki Sasaki and Emmet Sheehan would likely fill out a rotation. The Dodgers are a good bet to rely on more than five starters anyway, given the injury histories and heavy workloads of their core arms. As Ardaya points out, the starters covered 137 1/3 of 165 innings during the 2025 playoff run.
Tommy Edman is also going with the gradual approach this offseason. The 30-year-old is recovering from ankle surgery. The procedure included ligament repair and the removal of bone spurs, notes Ardaya. Edman said the issues affected him as a baserunner and as a defender bouncing between second base and center field. Similar to Snell, his status for Opening Day is uncertain.
“I think it all depends on how the progression goes along,” Edman said. “I’m not putting that as a hard line in the sand. I am doing everything I can to be ready for Opening Day. But if it comes around to that time and my ankle is 90 percent, not quite where I need it to be, I’m going to do my best to be patient with it and get it back to 100 percent and not dealing with it for the rest of the year.”
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.
Clayton Kershaw Will Not Be On Dodgers’ Wild Card Roster
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts tells Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times that left-hander Clayton Kershaw will not be on the club’s Wild Card roster. The veteran southpaw is starting today’s game and it will be a normal start for him. The Dodgers recalled right-hander Landon Knack to give them a fresh arm, with left-hander Andrew Heaney optioned out as the corresponding move.
The decision on Kershaw makes sense given the short series, as they wouldn’t need him to make a start in the best-of-three. Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell will likely take the ball for the first two contests. Tyler Glasnow started yesterday but only went three innings. He should be plenty rested to start on normal rest for Thursday’s Game Three, if necessary. Shohei Ohtani could also be a factor in there, depending on how the Dodgers want to use him.
The Dodgers have experimented with Kershaw as a reliever a little bit recently, as he tossed a relief inning on Wednesday. However, Kershaw lacks the top-end velocity that teams generally like to have coming out of the bullpen these days. His fastball averaged 90.4 miles per hour during that appearance out of the bullpen on Wednesday. Even with the Dodger bullpen scuffling a bit in recent weeks, they seemingly prefer to go with their typical relievers instead of having Kershaw convert to a pen role.
Since the Dodgers don’t plan on using Kershaw in the Wild Card round, they can have him absorb as many innings as possible today. Their contest this afternoon is meaningless, as they have already been locked into the #3 seed in the National League. It’s also meaningless for the Mariners, who are locked into the #2 seed in the American League. The Dodgers presumably hope to have Kershaw and Knack cover as much of the game as possible. Though they do have an off-day tomorrow before the Wild Card series begins, so they could perhaps have some relievers get limited work during today’s contest. Kershaw should get more consideration for a spot on the NLDS roster, if the Dodgers advance.
As for Heaney, he has more than enough service time where he can only be optioned to the minors with his consent. Presumably, he has agreed to be optioned off the active roster. That arrangement likely works for both sides. He probably isn’t going to be on the club’s initial playoff roster but could be recalled if some injuries pop up. That gives the Dodgers some extra depth. For Heaney, it’s a chance to potentially pitch in the postseason, whereas not consenting would only allow him to get a headstart on his offseason. He’ll be eligible for free agency at season’s end regardless.
Roberts also provided updates on some position players, per Sonja Chen of MLB.com. Roberts expects third baseman Max Muncy to be ready by Tuesday’s game. He hasn’t played since Wednesday due to some unspecified lower body injury. Roberts added that infielder/outfielder Tommy Edman should be able to play the field by Tuesday as well. Due to some right ankle soreness, he hasn’t played the field since Wednesday, though he did serve as the designated hitter on Saturday.
Catcher Will Smith is a bit more up in the air. He hasn’t played in almost three weeks due to a hairline fracture in his hand, suffered when he was hit by a foul ball. Roberts says he has been swinging lately but will need to take live at-bats tomorrow to be considered for the roster. Currently, the Dodgers have Ben Rortvedt and Dalton Rushing handling the catching duties.
Photo courtesy of Joe Rondone, Imagn Images
IL Activations: Chapman, Yates
Here’s a look at some of the more notable names to be activated from the injured list today…
- The Giants activated third baseman Matt Chapman from the injured list today after spending just a week on the shelf due to inflammation in his right hand. Versatile infielder Tyler Fitzgerald was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Chapman on the active roster. Chapman has appeared in just 96 games for San Francisco this year after missing time due to a sprained right hand back in June. He missed nearly a month due to that injury, and after being activated in early July he hit just .200/.290/.365 over 31 games before heading back to the IL due to his ailing hand. Chapman received a cortisone shot during this latest stint on the shelf, and both he and the Giants are surely hoping he’ll be able to hit more like his first half self (.243/.360/.452 in 65 games) going forward. As for Fitzgerald, he’s hit just .217/.278/.327 (73 wRC+) in 72 games this year thanks primarily to vanishing power relative to his 15 homers in 341 plate appearances last year.
- Elsewhere in the NL West, the Dodgers activated veteran relief arm Kirby Yates from the injured list today. He takes the roster spot of southpaw Blake Snell, who is headed to the paternity list. Yates was shelved on August 1 due to low back pain and hasn’t appeared in a game since July 26. He was placed on the shelf after a difficult month of July where he surrendered a 6.00 ERA and 5.95 FIP across eight appearances, but the Dodgers are surely hoping that his month-long layoff has helped him get healthy for the final weeks of the season. Yates was arguably the best reliever in baseball with the Rangers last year as he posted a 1.17 ERA with a 2.50 FIP and picked up 33 saves in 61 appearances. This year his ERA has ballooned to 4.31, but a 32.8% strikeout rate still offers some reason for optimism that he’ll be able to turn things around now that he’s healthy. Yates joins a Dodgers bullpen that is presently relying on Blake Treinen and Ben Casparius in the late innings from the right side.
Dodgers Activate Blake Snell
The Dodgers have activated Blake Snell from the 60-day injured list, the team announced this morning. The two-time Cy Young winner signed a five-year, $182MM contract with L.A. in the offseason but landed on the injured list with left shoulder inflammation after just two starts with his new team. As expected, he will start this afternoon against the Rays. Right-hander Paul Gervase, whom the Dodgers acquired as part of the three-team trade that sent Zack Littell to the Reds, has been optioned to the minor leagues. MLBTR’s Steve Adams reports that the Dodgers will make room for Snell on the 40-man roster by designating fellow left-hander Zach Penrod for assignment.
When healthy, Snell is one of the most fearsome pitchers in the game. While injuries limited him to just 20 starts last year in his lone season with the Giants, the southpaw produced a 3.12 ERA and 3.16 SIERA in 104 innings of work. The Dodgers will hope he enjoys similar success upon his return in 2025, though it’s worth keeping in mind that neither of the injuries that sidelined Snell in 2024 (nor the injuries that sidelined him in 2022 or 2021) were arm injuries. On the bright side, he was utterly dominant in his four rehab starts, striking out 24 minor league batters in 13 2/3 innings of work and touching 97 on the radar gun.
Perhaps no team has suffered as many pitching injuries as the Dodgers this season, but no team entered the season equipped with more pitching depth, either. With Snell back in the mix, L.A.’s rotation is finally starting to look like the supergroup fans imagined it could be in the offseason. The two-time ERA leader joins Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, Clayton Kershaw, and Emmet Sheehan in what will be a six-man rotation for the time being. Considering all six of those pitchers have dealt with injuries over the past 12 months, manager Dave Roberts’s decision to move to a six-man rotation is easy to understand.
The Dodgers are enjoying yet another strong season, but they have not been the unstoppable force many expected them to be. Injuries have been a big reason why. According to FanGraphs, they are the closest team to a lock to make the playoffs (99.4% playoff odds), but their division odds took a notable hit after on trade deadline day. San Diego made a huge splash, adding Mason Miller, Ryan O’Hearn, Ramon Laureano, Nestor Cortes, Jorge Quintana, Freddy Fermin, and Will Wagner, while L.A. had a relatively quiet deadline, picking up Brock Stewart and Alex Call but parting with Dustin May. The Dodgers remain the clear frontrunners in the NL West and the favorites to win World Series, according to both the FanGraphs and PECOTA odds, but they are now relying on their many injured players to get healthy (and their many injury-prone players to stay healthy) more than ever.
The Dodgers acquired Penrod for cash consideration in June after the Red Sox designated him for assignment. The left-hander initially signed with the Rangers as an undrafted free agent in 2018, and went under the knife for Tommy John surgery the following year. He did not pitch in affiliated ball again until he signed a minor league pact with the Red Sox in August 2023.
Penrod made his MLB debut for Boston the following September, pitching four innings over seven games and giving up two runs (one earned). He struck out three and walked four. Unfortunately, a left elbow sprain kept him from competing for a spot in the Red Sox’s Opening Day bullpen this year, and not long after he returned from the IL, Boston cut him from the 40-man roster. Clearly, the Dodgers were intrigued enough to strike a trade and keep him on the 40-man for six weeks, but he failed to earn his way back to the majors. L.A. will now have to place Penrod on waivers, and perhaps the potential that attracted the Dodgers to his arm will convince another team to put in a claim in the coming days. He still has three option years remaining.
Dodgers Notes: Snell, Ohtani, Rotation, Miller, Treinen
Blake Snell threw 76 pitches in a rehab start with Triple-A Oklahoma City on Saturday, and it would appear as though this fourth rehab outing will also be the left-hander’s last. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register) that Snell will be activated from the 60-day injured list this week, and the club will move to a six-man rotation.
It has been a long road back for Snell, who appeared in just two games for L.A. before shoulder inflammation put him on the shelf in the first week of April. Some renewed soreness in the later part of April led to both an injection in Snell’s shoulder and a shutdown from throwing, which led to this lengthy stint on first the 15-day and eventually the 60-day IL.
The lingering shoulder problem is the latest setback in Snell’s checkered injury history, adding to his reputation as something of an all-or-nothing pitcher. When Snell is healthy and available, there are few (if any) better pitchers in the game, as evidenced by Snell’s two Cy Young Awards and his tendency to catch fire in later in the season. As we saw just last season with the Giants, Snell battled injuries and ineffectiveness in the first three months of the 2024 campaign before delivering an absurd 1.23 ERA in his final 14 starts and 80 1/3 innings of action.
Time will tell if Snell can deliver anything close to that in his return to the Los Angeles rotation, but his impending return should be a nice boost to a Dodgers pitching staff that has been crushed by injuries all year. The move to the six-man rotation reflects this improved rotation health, and the club’s desire to manage everyone’s innings in an attempt to preserve the starters’ arms over the rest of the season and through October. If all goes well, the staff will consist of Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, and one of Dustin May or Emmet Sheehan.
This isn’t the first time the Dodgers adopted a six-man rotation, and the ragged nature of the team’s pitching health has already led to a pretty irregular deployment of the starters. There’s also the Ohtani factor, as the two-way star is still slowly building up his innings. Ohtani has tossed three frames in each of his last two starts, with May and Sheehan working as piggyback starters in support.
Ohtani is now expected to pitch four innings for his next two starts, Roberts said, so the team will be setting aside the piggyback plan for now. This doesn’t mean Ohtani is going to be viewed as a regular starter per se, as Roberts explained. “We’re not going to have the reins off where we’re going to say, ‘Hey, you can go 110 pitches.’ I don’t see that happening for quite some time,” the skipper said. “So I think that staying at four [innings] for a bit, to then build up to five and we’ll see where we go from there.”
Ohtani’s next two starts will come on Wednesday against the Reds, and then on August 6 against the Cardinals. Notably, the Dodgers don’t play on either of the days following Ohtani’s two scheduled starts, as Roberts said the intent is to give Ohtani some built-in recovery time following his pitching outings before returning to his usual DH duty.
There is still plenty of fluidity in the six-man rotation plan, so Roberts didn’t want to commit to stating which of May or Sheehan could be remaining in the rotation and which might be moved to bullpen duty. Describing the Dodgers’ pitching depth as a surplus is probably misleading given how more injuries could arise at any time, yet Los Angeles is addressing its number of starters at the Triple-A level by moving Bobby Miller from rotation duty to a relief job.
Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reported yesterday about Miller’s role change, and Roberts confirmed the plan today. “I think that this might be something that unlocks him. Going hard for a shorter period of time, to get some confidence for him, which could help us here,” Roberts said.
Selected 29th overall by the Dodgers in the 2020 draft, Miller posted a 3.76 ERA over 22 starts and 124 1/3 innings in his 2023 rookie season, but that promising beginning gave way to an 8.85 ERA in 61 big league innings since Opening Day 2024. Shoulder problems cost Miller two months of the 2024 season but his struggles have continued into this year, including a 5.58 ERA at Triple-A Oklahoma City and continued control issues. Miller’s walk rate (15.4%) is almost as high as his strikeout rate (17.9%) over his rough 69 1/3 Triple-A frames this year.
Returning to the Major League bullpen mix, the Dodgers welcomed Blake Treinen back from the 60-day injured list today. Left-hander Justin Wrobleski was also called up from Triple-A, while righties Edgardo Henriquez and Will Klein were optioned to Oklahoma City.
Treinen posted a 3.38 ERA over eight relief innings for Los Angeles before right forearm tightness led to almost three and a half months on the sidelines. While the veteran’s health is still a concern given his significant injury history, Treinen was a major bullpen weapon for the Dodgers as recently as last year, when he posted a 1.93 ERA over 46 2/3 innings in the regular season, and then a 2.19 ERA in 12 1/3 postseason frames. His return won’t halt the Dodgers’ plan to acquire more high-leverage bullpen help at the deadline, but Treinen could help the club fulfill part of that need from within.
Latest On Dodgers’ Rotation
10:00PM: Roberts provided a few more updates on the pitching staff in today’s meeting with reporters (including Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times). Snell and Glasnow will throw bullpen sessions tomorrow, and Sheehan will make another Triple-A rehab start this week with the aim of going four innings deep into the game. “If he can do that, then he’s sort of going to be a viable conversation” for an activation from the IL, Roberts said. Matt Sauer has also joined the team in San Diego on the taxi squad, and could be officially recalled if the Dodgers need a fresh arm for the remainder of their series with the Padres.
10:30AM: Right-hander Tony Gonsolin became the latest Dodgers pitcher to hit the injured list over the weekend, but an MRI to evaluate his ailing elbow showed that his surgically repaired ulnar collateral ligament is intact, writes Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. Manager Dave Roberts said there’s no timetable yet for Gonsolin to resume throwing. An exact diagnosis of his injury remains unclear.
Even with the uncertain outlook, it’s a sigh of relief for the Dodgers that Gonsolin isn’t facing renewed damage in that UCL. Another tear would’ve sidelined him more than a year and possibly kept him out through the end of the 2026 season. That’d likely have ended Gonsolin’s Dodgers tenure, as he’s owed a raise on a $5.4MM salary this offseason and is only under club control through the 2026 campaign. Any injury that threatens to wipe out significant time in 2026 would result in a non-tender.
The 31-year-old Gonsolin’s return from his 2023 Tommy John procedure has been a mixed bag. He’s pitched in seven big league games this year, looking sharp out of the gate (2.81 ERA, 21-to-4 K/BB ratio in his first 16 innings) before stumbling over his past four trips to the mound. Since May 18, Gonsolin has faced the Angels, Mets (twice) and Yankees. He’s surrendered a combined 15 runs in 20 innings and served up 20 hits with an ugly 17-to-14 K/BB ratio. A whopping seven of those hits have been home runs.
Gonsolin is one of eight starting pitchers on the injured list — a number that doesn’t even include Shohei Ohtani, who’s still working his way back toward a return to the mound. Front-line arms like Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell have barely pitched this year and are on the 60-day IL at the moment. Touted young arms like Emmet Sheehan, River Ryan, Kyle Hurt and Gavin Stone opened the season on the injured list — the first three recovering from 2024 Tommy John procedures and the latter on the mend from a shoulder operation that’s likely to cost him the entire 2025 season. Prized young right-hander Roki Sasaki has been out for a month now due to a shoulder impingement.
At the moment, the Dodgers have a healthy Yoshinobu Yamamoto atop the rotation. He’s followed by franchise icon Clayton Kershaw, right-hander Dustin May and southpaw Justin Wrobleski. Veteran José Ureña is working a multi-inning role in the bullpen but has extensive experience as a starting pitcher. Rotation options down in Triple-A and already on the 40-man roster include Landon Knack, Bobby Miller, Nick Frasso and Matt Sauer. Frasso and Miller have struggled in the minors this year. Knack has been hit hard in seven big league starts. Sauer has been sharp in Triple-A and looked solid in a swingman role during limited MLB time.
Even with that laundry list of injuries, however, general manager Brandon Gomes downplayed his team’s need to go out and acquire starting pitching ahead of next month’s trade deadline. Chatting with Jon Heyman of the New York Post, Gomes stated: “With the information we have, and where the guys are now and progressing, the expectation is we will have all we need in-house.”
There could be some gamesmanship at play there, of course. It’s also notable that those comments came before Gonsolin’s placement on the injured list. Further injury troubles or setbacks for any of their on-mend-arms in the next six weeks can always heighten the need for outside help.
As things stand, the Dodgers do appear to have some near-term help on the horizon. The aforementioned Sheehan is about 13 months removed from his Tommy John surgery and is already on a minor league rehab assignment. He’s made three starts — one in the Rookie-level Complex League and two in Triple-A — and tallied nine innings of one-run ball with 14 strikeouts and just one walk (plus another plunked batter).
Sheehan tossed 57 pitches in his most recent outing on June 7. He’ll presumably need at least one more rehab start — very likely another couple — before he’s an option to rejoin the big league club, but Sheehan is a former top-100 prospect and is still just 25 years old. The right-hander’s 96.3 mph average fastball is actually up a bit from his pre-surgery levels, though it’s worth bearing in mind that he’s still effectively throwing short stints and thus not running into any velocity decline as he turns a lineup over two or three times. Regardless, his rehab work is encouraging, and Sheehan could be an option to help the big league staff before the end of the month.