Dodgers' follow-up reports on Blake Snell shoulder injury give reason for pause

Blake Snell's move to the 15-day IL on Sunday was sudden and completely unexpected, and it left a hole in the Dodgers rotation that, as Justin Wrobleski proved with an eight-run outing on Tuesday night, will be hard to fill.

The Dodgers do have the depth to cover for Snell as long as he's out — Landon Knack is expected to get the ball for the Dodgers' series finale against the Nationals on Thursday, which will probably send Wrobleski back to Triple-A — but hitting a snag after just two starts is far from ideal for one of the Dodgers' biggest offseason signings.

Snell's dealing with shoulder inflammation, which is never a good sign, and he told reporters he'd been in some amount of pain for the last three weeks. An MRI showed, thankfully, no signs of structural damage, but he also met with Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the Dodgers' lead physician, in Washington DC. ElAttrache was already traveling with the team as part of the Dodgers' White House visit.

After that meeting, Jack Harris of the LA Times reported that the Dodgers decided no action was necessary and Snell would start throwing again on Monday. However, there's still no timeline to return, and no update on whether or not Snell is still in pain.

Blake Snell set to resume throwing on Monday, but still has no clear timeline to return for Dodgers

This is objectively good news, and maybe all Snell needs is a few days of rest, but if his pain has really been lingering for that long, it's hard to blame fans for being concerned, especially when it comes to an injury that so often tends to lead to major surgery. Snell has mostly avoided major surgeries throughout his career, but Dodgers pitchers as a whole have had bad luck skirting major surgeries.

In the meantime, the Dodgers put Wrobleski up on Tuesday and will have Knack on the hill on Wednesday, then the rotation should reset at Yoshinobu Yamamoto when the Dodgers return to LA to take on the Cubs. Tony Gonsolin is also a potential factor here, depending on how long the team wants to keep him rehabbing in Triple-A.

The Dodgers have over 10 pitchers on the IL already this year, including a handful of rookies who all had to undergo Tommy John last year. It's imperative that Snell avoids the same fate.