Dodgers clearly played dangerous game with Blake Snell after surgery news

After missing spring training, then nearly two months of the regular season, then pitching just three innings in his season debut for the Dodgers on May 9, Blake Snell is back on the IL and set to undergo surgery to remove loose bodies in his pitching elbow.

Removing loose bodies is the Hot Surgery of the Year — Hunter Greene, the Dodgers' own Edwin Díaz, and Tarik Skubal have all been sidelined after undergoing the same procedure. Now Snell joins them.

All three were operated on by Dodgers team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache, and it's almost guaranteed that he'll operate on Snell on Tuesday as well. Skubal underwent a NanoNeedle Scope procedure, which uses a smaller arthroscope and will hopefully lead to a faster recovery, but it's unclear if Snell will receive the same procedure.

The Dodgers knew what they were getting with Snell, who has two Cy Youngs but has failed to remain healthy in basically any other season. He pitched 180 2/3 innings in his award-winning season with the Rays, and then 180 1/3 to earn his second with the Padres. In his non-Cy Young years, he's only pitched up to 129 1/3 and as few as 61 1/3 (last with the Dodgers).

So LA didn't sign this guy for his consistency; they signed him for those occasional seasons of brilliance. But now that Snell's in his second year of his five-year deal, he's already pitched a career low in innings, and might miss three months after this surgery, we might have to question whether or not his contract was worth it.

Dodgers' Blake Snell contract isn't looking great after announcement of elbow surgery

Ultimately, the Dodgers will never call this contract a wash for as long as Snell keeps delivering in the postseason. He might've only made 11 starts in the regular season, but his October performance was eclipsed only by Yoshinobu Yamamoto's. We shouldn't forget his eight-inning, one-hit outing against the Brewers in the NLCS.

This isn't just a philosophy the Dodgers apply to Snell. Of course, they'd like a healthy roster through the regular season, but they have so much depth that they can get by without it. As long as everyone's healthy for the postseason.

So they're walking a very dangerous tightrope. The Dodgers were always taking the chance that Snell might miss a lot of time due to injuries — that's just how his career has gone — but if he's not healthy or doesn't perform well because of his health? We'll have to have a tougher conversation about his contract.

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