ANAHEIM -- Just one start into his 2026 season, left-hander Blake Snell will be sidelined for what could be a significant stretch.
One day after Snell was scratched from his planned start and placed on the 15-day injured list, manager Dave Roberts announced that Snell will undergo surgery to remove loose bodies in his left elbow on Tuesday. There was no immediate timetable for Snell's return, but the Dodgers are hopeful he'll recover in time to pitch again this season.
The Dodgers are still determining what type of surgery Snell will have, but a source confirmed that it is a possibility that Snell could have the NanoNeedle Scope procedure that Tigers ace Tarik Skubal recently underwent. Less than a week after surgery, Skubal was already back to playing light catch.
"It's supposed to be a lot quicker recovery, so we're encouraged about that," Roberts said before Saturday night's game against the Angels. "We expect him, certainly, back this season. Don't know really a timetable. But I think just kind of what we had -- the MRI, the scans, everything -- we feel good about getting back to play sooner than later."
The Dodgers have already had one pitcher land on the IL with loose bodies this year: closer Edwin Díaz, who underwent surgery to remove them from his right elbow and is targeting a return after the All-Star break.
Snell experienced this same issue earlier in his career while with the Rays, having surgery to remove loose bodies from his pitching elbow in July 2019 and returning to big league action about two months later. Because he's done it before and has an idea of what it takes to come back from the procedure, that gives the Dodgers further reassurance that he should be back by season's end, even if he does not end up having the NanoNeedle surgery.
After beginning this year on the 15-day IL with fatigue in his left shoulder -- which also sidelined him for four months last season -- Snell made his season debut last Saturday. He showed some rust in his return to action, giving up five runs (four earned) on six hits and two walks while striking out five, but the quality of his stuff was better than his final line.
Snell felt good at that time, but when he played catch leading into his planned second start, he reported "something in the back of his elbow and just couldn’t continue," Roberts said. That led him to undergo testing, and the Dodgers discovered the loose bodies in his elbow.
With Tyler Glasnow also on the IL with lower back spasms, the Dodgers are running out of 40-man pitchers to plug into their six-man rotation. Glasnow's IL stint will be longer than the minimum 15 days, but depending on how much longer he's sidelined, L.A. could plug in bullpen games to keep its five starters on their regular schedule. The team could also look to Triple-A, where River Ryan returned from the Minor League IL on Friday and could be a "slim possibility" to fill Snell's spot, per Roberts.
Similar to stretches of the past several seasons where their starting depth was pushed to the limit due to injuries, the Dodgers' rotation is much thinner than it was at the beginning of the year. They've navigated times like these before, and they'll have to make it work once more in their bid for a three-peat.
"It seems like every year we go through it," Roberts said. "What I have learned is we get through it. It doesn’t feel great when you’re in it. … In baseball, it happens all the time with pitching."