Dodgers To Reinstate Blake Snell Saturday

The Dodgers are going to reinstate left-hander Blake Snell from the 15-day injured list to start tomorrow’s game, reports Jack Harris of The California Post. He’ll be making his season debut, as he’s been on the IL with shoulder fatigue until now.

It’s a notable change of plans. Snell has been on a rehab assignment of late, getting to four innings his last time out. As of two days ago, the plan was for him to make one more rehab outing this Saturday. Instead, he’s going to be making that start at the big league level.

As noted by Katie Woo of The Athletic, the Dodgers have repeatedly said that they prefer Snell to build up to more than five innings before being reinstated. That they are pivoting from that stance perhaps bodes poorly for right-hander Tyler Glasnow, who departed his most recent start due to a back spasm. At this point, it’s still not confirmed if Glasnow is going on the IL or is perhaps just going to skip a start. One way or another, it seems the Dodgers are changing up the rotation outlook they had in place just a few days ago.

The Dodgers have been using a six-man rotation consisting of Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Emmet Sheehan, Justin Wrobleski and Roki Sasaki. As Snell has been rehabbing of late, it has led to discussions about who should be bumped out when he returns. Glasnow, Ohtani and Yamamoto were obviously not going anywhere.

Sasaki has been struggling, with a 5.97 ERA this year. Sheehan hasn’t been much better, currently sitting on a 5.23 ERA. Wrobleski has a 1.25 ERA but not in any kid of way that feels sustainable. He is only striking out 10.7% of batters faced and is getting assistance from a .222 batting average on balls in play and 86.5% strand rate. All three have options and could have been sent down, or perhaps moved to the bullpen. Perhaps the decision can now be kicked down the road if Glasnow is going to miss some time. The Dodgers will likely provide more info as tonight’s game gets closer.