{"id":624519,"date":"2026-04-22T23:17:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T23:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/624519\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T23:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T23:17:14","slug":"dodgers-notes-snell-sasaki-bullpen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/624519\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers Notes: Snell, Sasaki, Bullpen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dodgers are cruising along with an MLB-best 16-7 record (tied with the Padres) and a share of first in a competitive NL West. Still, more pitching help should be on the way soon. Lefty Blake Snell<\/a> is slated to start for Single-A Ontario Tower Buzzers tonight as he builds up for his season debut, according to Sonja Chen of MLB.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shoulder fatigue in his throwing arm dates back to last year. While Snell was able to toss an excellent 95 1\/3 innings between the regular season and postseason last year, the Dodgers erred on the side of caution<\/a> and placed the left-hander on the IL to open the season. Snell is tabbed for three innings tonight and will need four starts to build up to the five-inning\/75-pitch MLB level, placing his earliest big league return timeline as late May.<\/p>\n

Even in Snell\u2019s absence, the Dodgers rotation hasn\u2019t missed a beat. Their 14 quality starts lead all of MLB entering play today. Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a>, Tyler Glasnow<\/a>, and Shohei Ohtani<\/a> have been typically excellent, but Justin Wrobleski<\/a> has offered some surprising stability at the back of the rotation (despite a lack of strikeouts). Between Wrobleski, Emmet Sheehan<\/a>, and Roki Sasaki<\/a>, the Dodgers will have a rotation decision to make in the coming weeks upon Snell\u2019s return.<\/p>\n

Sasaki has recorded outs in the fifth inning in only two of his four starts this season. Given his excellence operating out of the bullpen in last year\u2019s championship run, it\u2019s natural to wonder if Sasaki could be ticketed for relief. At least for now, Sasaki\u2019s role appears to be safe. In response to a hypothetical Sasaki in relief, Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes<\/a> gave Fabian Ardaya and Katie Woo of The Athletic<\/a> a flat \u201cNo.\u201d Reading between the lines, it appears the final rotation spot will fall to Wrobleski or Sheehan, with Wrobleski currently occupying the inside track. Performance in the coming weeks could shift this assessment (and injuries to the rest of the rotation could upend it entirely).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an interesting position by Gomes and the organization, given Sasaki\u2019s struggles, but it reflects the Dodgers\u2019 long-term belief in his potential. Sasaki surrendered only a single run in 10 2\/3 innings last postseason, but wasn\u2019t dominant by any means. His 2.3 K-BB% was lackluster, and ERA models like xFIP (5.72) and SIERA (5.35) didn\u2019t love his work in an admittedly small sample. However, Sasaki was able to corral the long ball issues (again, small sample size) that have plagued his MLB work up to this point. In all likelihood, Sasaki\u2019s gutsy October performance had little bearing on the organization\u2019s long-term vision for him.<\/p>\n

Sasaki\u2019s 2026 starting work looks largely similar to 2025, with a marginal improvement in strikeouts and more fly balls leaving the yard on a rate basis. But if the Dodgers remain committed to locking him into rotation, one of Wrobleski or Sheehan will be squeezed off the roster or the bullpen. Fortunately, both Wrobleski and Sheehan have options remaining, meaning either of them can be freely moved between the major league club and its minor league affiliates them being exposed to waivers. Sasaki also has options remaining, meaning the Dodgers could theoretically allow him to continue working as a starter in the minors if they want to keep him stretched out as a starter, though this route seems unlikely.<\/p>\n

LA\u2019s bullpen pecking order is also currently under evaluation after closer Edwin Diaz<\/a> went under the knife to remove loose bodies in his throwing elbow<\/a>. While manager Dave Roberts acknowledged top lefty Tanner Scott<\/a> could receive the majority of the save opportunities, he stopped short of anointing him interim closer, plainly stating (via Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register<\/a>) the approach as \u201c\u2026the closer-by-committee way of doing it.\u201d High-leverage righty Brock Stewart<\/a>, currently rehabbing with Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers, is also nearing a return. Between lefties (Scott and Alex Vesia<\/a>) and righties (Blake Treinen<\/a> and Stewart), Roberts should have a multitude of options at his disposal to attack hitters in the late innings until Diaz\u2019s reinstatement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dodgers are cruising along with an MLB-best 16-7 record (tied with the Padres) and a share of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,5781,32129,591,6110,85,5787],"class_list":{"0":"post-624519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-blake-snell","11":"tag-edwin-diaz","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-roki-sasaki","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tanner-scott"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624519","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=624519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}