Dodgers abruptly announce Blake Snell return LA fans didn't see coming

The Dodgers have no reason to panic right now, but they're moving their injured players through rehab assignments with a surprising amount of urgency. Kiké Hernández got to Triple-A Oklahoma City first, but Mookie Betts could be back even sooner. The current plan is that he's activated on Monday for the Dodgers' series against the Giants.

Blake Snell has moved over a few different levels of the minors — Single-A in late April for two starts, then Oklahoma City for one — and it was unclear how many the Dodgers would have him pitch. He missed all of spring training, so fans' best guess was that two or three would do the trick.

As it turns out, one was enough. Jack Harris of the California Post reported that the Dodgers will be reactivating Snell on Saturday (his bobblehead night!) instead of making a second rehab start.

Tyler Glasnow was pulled from his latest start after just one inning, reporting back tightness. Although he and the Dodgers have been optimistic — Glasnow described it as case "tall guy back" — you never know.

If it's not Glasnow, the Dodgers will be facing a tough decision to make before their make the roster move official.

Dodgers to reactivate Blake Snell on Saturday after just one Triple-A rehab start

The prime candidate right now is Emmet Sheehan (though if the Dodgers were daring enough, it would be Roki Sasaki), who has battled velocity issues throughout the season and hasn't yet found a solution. His fastball sat at 93.4 MPH in his last start against the Cardinals and got as low as 89.7 while maxing out at just 95.3.

If it is indeed Glasnow going onto the IL, well. Dodgers fans would be disappointed but not shocked. He still has yet to pitch more than 22 starts in a season (2024 with the Dodgers) and only threw 18 last year.

The Dodgers are still in an okay spot if Glasnow goes out the revolving door while Snell comes in. Sheehan's velocity issues do seem to be getting to him — he was pulled after 4 2/3 innings after giving up four runs on eight hits — but it could give him more time to figure things out. Or, if the Dodgers are still uncertain, they're already running a six-man rotation, so they could decide to move Sheehan to the bullpen or down to the minors and still have a full rotation.

Regardless, Snell is on his way, and the Dodgers are almost at full power again.

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