Projecting Dodgers' 2026 Opening Day starting rotation without Blake Snell

The Dodgers made it clear at the beginning of spring training that Blake Snell wouldn't be ready to go by Opening Day. They were building him up slowly after he was left "exhausted" at the end of the 2025 season. He said he was playing through shoulder pain during the postseason, after he'd lost the majority of his first year with the Dodgers to inflammation and a long IL stint.

So what does the Dodgers' rotation look like without him?

LA is rich in pitching depth. They would've been fine even without multiple arms coming back from majority surgery, but having River Ryan back in the mix makes things especially interesting.

It's still unclear if the Dodgers are going to go to a six-man rotation. They've talked about wanting one for years, and they certainly have the talent and volume to do it if they really wanted to, but they might also be satisfied keeping a couple of long relievers in the bullpen and using a few of them as openers for a while.

If the Dodgers stick to a traditional rotation, all signs point to it looking like this:

• Yoshinobu Yamamoto
• Tyler Glasnow
• Shohei Ohtani
• Emmet Sheehan
• Roki Sasaki

What does the Dodgers' Opening Day rotation look like with Blake Snell delayed?

Sheehan is already thought of as basically a lock to take Snell's vacated rotation spot after his great showing in a hybrid role last season.

The Dodgers have also discussed taking things easy on Yamamoto and Ohtani to start the year, given Yamamoto's usage during the postseason and Ohtani ... being Ohtani. Again, it's unclear what that might look like right now. Do the Dodgers start the year being very liberal with bullpen games while trying to give their injury-prone rotation a week off between starts, or do they actually anoint an official sixth starter?

Either way, River Ryan is (and should be) in that discussion. Gavin Stone's shoulder setback, which rules him out for Opening Day, gave the Dodgers one fewer decision to make, but Ryan's future is still unclear. He's been looking a lot better than Sasaki in spring training, but the Dodgers are clearly reluctant to, if not totally adamant about, send him down to Triple-A.

So, basically, it looks like we should expect the lines between rotation and bullpen a fair bit, at least toward the beginning of the season. There's nothing stopping the Dodgers from playing a little fast and loose when they have the depth to do it.