Dodgers insider hints at unexpected Wild Card roster move involving big-name pitcher

The Dodgers clinched a postseason spot with their win over the Giants on Friday. It's highly unlikely that they'll also get a bye, and they're not totally out of the woods yet when it comes to clinching the division over the Padres, but their 13th consecutive trip to the postseason is guaranteed.

It takes some of the pressure off of the six games that remain in the regular season but also opens up a whole new set of problems to solve. The roster will have to be whittled back down to 26 from 28, and pitchers coming back from injury can/probably will lead to shakeups.

If the postseason started tomorrow, the No. 3 seed Dodgers would face the No. 6 seed Reds, who are currently tied with the Mets for the last Wild Card spot but hold the tiebreaker over them. The best-of-three series means three starters and 10 relievers will be carried onto the roster.

Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic predicted that a surprising starter would probably be left on the outside looking in, at least for the first round. He projects a rotation of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, and Shohei Ohtani (if needed), with Clayton Kershaw "likely" but not guaranteed, and Tyler Glasnow "on ice."

The Athletic predicts Tyler Glasnow will not appear during Wild Card round for Dodgers

Ideally, we'd only need to see Yamamoto and Snell in a Wild Card round, but Ohtani over Glasnow or Kershaw for a potential, decisive Game 3 is a bit of a dice roll. The Dodgers still haven't let him pitch past five innings and the bullpen can't really be trusted to finish out 3-4 innings behind him. Glasnow has gotten through seven innings three times since August.

Ardaya's reasoning makes sense, though. If he's left off of the Wild Card roster, he'll be ready to go in Game 1 of the NLDS, or Game 2 if the Dodgers take the first round in two games.

It'll all depend on what the Dodgers are actually going to end up doing with Ohtani. Their current plan is to take him into the postseason as a starter but they are also exploring options to try to circumvent the wording of the two-way player rule and have him pitch in relief.

If Yamamoto/Snell/Ohtani is indeed what the Dodgers end up going for, we should hope that the Dodgers either don't need to go to Game 3 or will be willing to stretch Ohtani out, because there's zero faith in this bullpen right now.