{"id":450987,"date":"2026-02-01T05:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T05:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/450987\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T05:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T05:15:08","slug":"dodgers-notes-ohtani-snell-edman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/450987\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers Notes: Ohtani, Snell, Edman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shohei Ohtani<\/a> was on the mound for the final out of the last World Baseball Classic, striking out then-teammate Mike Trout<\/a> to take home the trophy. The 2026 edition of the event won\u2019t feature Ohtani the pitcher. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts<\/a> told reporters, including Alden Gonzalez of ESPN<\/a>, that the Japanese right-hander will not be pitching in the WBC. Roberts added that it was Ohtani\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

Though Roberts said the team \u201cabsolutely\u201d would\u2019ve worked out Ohtani pitching in the tournament if he wanted to (per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register<\/a>), recent developments around WBC insurance may have thrown a wrench into the situation. Evan Drellich of The Athletic noted<\/a> Ohtani was unlikely to be covered as a pitcher, meaning he couldn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Ohtani will still be on Team Japan as a DH. Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic<\/a> relayed that the righty said he\u2019ll be ready to pitch to open the regular season. Ohtani didn\u2019t 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Health tends to be the main question mark for L.A.\u2019s rotation, and Blake Snell<\/a> is taking steps to make sure he feels right in 2026. The talented left-hander told reporters, including Ardaya<\/a>, that he\u2019s taking a more deliberate approach to building up strength this offseason. \u201cLast year, I was rushing,\u201d Snell said. \u201cI wanted to pitch so bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. \u201cJust never felt great, never felt what the normal (is) I\u2019ve felt my whole career,\u201d 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\u2019s final postseason line still looks solid.<\/p>\n

Even with the slower buildup, \u201cthe plan\u201d is for Snell to be ready for Opening Day, per Sonja Chen of MLB.com<\/a>. If Snell isn\u2019t ready by late March, Roki Sasaki<\/a> and Emmet Sheehan<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Tommy Edman<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it all depends on how the progression goes along,\u201d Edman said. \u201cI\u2019m 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\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edman has been limited to 134 games in his first two seasons with the Dodgers. He\u2019s popped 19 home runs, but his stolen base production has fallen off a cliff. Edman was coming off three straight seasons of 27+ steals when he went to L.A. He\u2019s mustered just nine thefts the past two years. Edman\u2019s elite sprint speed has slipped a couple of notches with the Dodgers.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of John E. Sokolowski, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani was on the mound for the final out of the last World Baseball Classic, striking out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,5781,591,5149,85,10219],"class_list":["post-450987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blake-snell","tag-mlb","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-sports","tag-tommy-edman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}