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 announced right-handed reliever Will Klein will get the ball instead, and The Athletic’s Katie Woo reported the team has opted for a bullpen game.
The news comes just six days after Snell, 33, 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, but, per Woo, Friday’s absence is not believed to be related to the inflammation he was previously working through.
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.
Snell is a two-time Cy Young Award winner. He earned that honor in 2018 and 2023, leading MLB in ERA each season, 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 in the season, he spent four months on the injured list 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.
