SAN FRANCISCO -- The Dodgers are a step closer to getting a key member of their rotation back, as left-hander Blake Snell is slated to begin a rehab assignment with Single-A Ontario on Wednesday evening. He is expected to pitch three innings in his first start for the Tower Buzzers.
Snell began this season on the 15-day injured list with left shoulder fatigue. He spent four months on the IL with inflammation in the same shoulder last year and said he never felt quite right, even after returning. In the first season of his five-year, $182 million contract with the Dodgers, Snell went 5-4 with a 2.35 ERA in 11 starts in the regular season and posted a 3.18 ERA across six appearances (five starts) in the postseason.
During the offseason and spring, Snell slow-played his throwing progression while returning his shoulder to full health. Now that he's checking his final boxes before returning to the big league club, the Dodgers would like to have him build up to the five-inning, 75-pitch threshold at minimum before he's an option to return to the big league club.
Manager Dave Roberts expects Snell to make around four starts in the Minor Leagues, putting him on schedule to return around the end of May, as planned.
"I think he's right on track," Roberts said before Tuesday's game against the Giants. "I think that we were very methodical about this whole process. I think even from the outset, we were pretty conservative as far as when he's gonna come back. So this is kind of what we had hoped."
The Tower Buzzers, like their big league parent club, are also playing a team in the Giants' organization. Snell will start for them in San Jose, about an hour south of San Francisco, with first pitch for that game scheduled for 15 minutes before Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers take on the Giants at Oracle Park.
Snell's impending return sets up some competition at the back of the Dodgers' rotation. Beyond the rotation locks of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Ohtani, Roki Sasaki, Emmet Sheehan and Justin Wrobleski will have to fight for their spots over the next few weeks.
Even with Snell sidelined, the Dodgers' rotation has been a strength early in the season. Entering Tuesday, L.A. had gotten 14 starts of at least six innings from its starters, tied with Seattle for the most in the Majors. That length from the rotation has been especially important with the Dodgers dealing with injuries to their bullpen, notably losing closer Edwin Díaz until the second half.
That's where Wrobleski would appear to have an advantage over Sheehan and Sasaki. Wrobleski, who made his first outing of the season in long relief before shifting to the rotation, has given the Dodgers eight and seven innings in his last two starts. Sheehan, who has shown some growth after dealing with diminished velocity early on, has only completed six innings once. Sasaki has only recorded outs beyond the fourth inning in two of his four starts.
"I think for me, it's Emmet and Roki just earning that opportunity to go deeper," Roberts said. "But the other guys have done a really nice job up to this point, and I'm looking for both those guys to take the next step."
The trio of arms on the bubble will have a few weeks to make their case to stay in the big league rotation, and if the Dodgers have a tough decision to make when Snell is ready to be activated, that will be a good problem for them to have.