Dodgers place Blake Snell on IL with worrisome injury in trouble spot

Concerns about the health of the Dodgers' pitching staff were at an all-time high last season and lingered into 2025, even with all of the additions they made in the offseason to try to avoid being as short-staffed as they were by the end of 2024.

Michael Kopech, Evan Phillips, and Tony Gonsolin all started the year on the IL, and Kyle Hurt became the seventh pitcher added to the 60-day IL on April 2, joining Clayton Kershaw, Brusdar Graterol, and a handful of rookies.

Blake Snell seemed like the only pitcher in the Dodgers' rotation who might be able to withstand a full season of work, but even that came with caveats. Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, and Dustin May were all going to be handled carefully for one reason or another, but Snell also spent time on the IL last year and only managed to pitch 104 innings. Still, he dedicated himself to being a "workhorse" for the Dodgers this season in order to counteract his personal injury history.

Given the Dodgers' most recent injury update, that's definitely not going to be how things pan out. On Sunday, they moved Snell to the 15-day IL with shoulder inflammation, retroactive to April 3, and recalled Matt Sauer from Triple-A.

Dodgers move Blake Snell to 15-day IL with left shoulder inflammation

Shoulder inflammation is always a nebulous injury to suffer, and 15 days feels optimistic in terms of a timeline to recovery. Snell was on the IL twice last season with two separate injuries in his adductor and groin, but he evaded issues with his actual throwing arm.

This brings the Dodgers rotation down to four, and it's a little surprising that the team didn't opt to call up Landon Knack or Justin Wrobleski to fill in as fifth starters while they work out what's happening with Snell. Instead, it looks like we'll be in for few bullpen games, just like last year, with guys like Sauer, Ben Casparius, Jack Dreyer, and Luis García getting tasked with opening duties.

Gonsolin made his first rehab assignment start in Triple-A on Thursday, pitching 1 2/3 innings and giving up just one hit, but it's unclear how long the Dodgers want to keep him there, given that he hasn't pitched in the majors since August 2023. Whenever he's ready, he'll be the clear option to fill out the rotation again, but that will still leave the Dodgers with five starters who all come with cause for concern about pushing them too far.