The Los Angeles Dodgers scratched left-handed pitcher Blake Snell on Friday in Anaheim, hours before their series opener against the Los Angeles Angels. The Dodgers later announced that they’ve placed Snell on the injured list with left elbow loose bodies.
Snell had surgery in 2019 to remove loose bodies from his pitching elbow and was out from late July to mid-September. The Dodgers have backdated his IL designation to May 12 and recalled lefty Charlie Barnes.
For Friday’s game, the Dodgers have pivoted to right-handed reliever Will Klein, who will get the ball first in a bullpen game for the NL West leaders.
The news of Snell’s latest injury comes just six days after the 33-year-old made his long-awaited season debut. Shoulder fatigue that led to a slower-paced offseason wound up sidelining him at the start of the year.
In his first major-league outing since Game 7 of the 2025 World Series, the one-time All-Star gave up four earned runs and six hits in just three innings in a 7-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves last Saturday.
Despite those numbers, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts described Snell’s performance as “something to build off of,” via The Los Angeles Times.
After all, while Snell issued a pair of walks against the Braves last week, he did strike out five batters. Turns out, though, that he’ll likely have some more rust to work off whenever he takes the mound again.
Snell is a two-time Cy Young Award winner. He earned that honor in 2018 and 2023, leading MLB in ERA each of those seasons, the first with the Tampa Bay Rays and the second with the San Diego Padres.
In 2024, he pitched a no-hitter while playing for the San Francisco Giants. Last year, his first with the Dodgers, he shouldered quite the workload in the postseason. The seasoned southpaw made six appearances, including five starts, piling up 41 strikeouts in 34 innings on the bump and helping the Dodgers defend their World Series title. Along the way, he registered a 3.18 playoff ERA. While Snell struggled in his two World Series starts, both losses to the Toronto Blue Jays, he delivered 1 1/3 innings of shutout ball in a Game 7 relief appearance.
Earlier that the season, he spent four months on the IL because of discomfort in his throwing shoulder. This offseason, Snell told the media his shoulder “never felt great” last year after he joined the team on a five-year deal reportedly worth $182 million.
Snell took a more patient approach this time around, but, when given an opportunity to start last week versus the Braves — as Tyler Glasnow headed to the IL — he chose to rejoin the Dodgers’ rotation rather than make one final minor-league rehab start.
Less than a week later, he’s landed back on the IL, now with loose bodies in his left elbow.
