This story was excerpted from Sonja Chen’s Dodgers Beat newsletter. Brent Maguire wrote this edition. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
No team features more star power than the 2026 Dodgers, a club coming off of consecutive World Series titles and relying on names like Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Freddie Freeman.
What’s really separated the Dodgers from the rest of the pack in recent years, though, is their ability to find contributions from unlikely sources. In 2026, one of those sources is left-hander Justin Wrobleski, who has pitched to the tune of a 1.25 ERA in 36 innings. He’s been even better, though, since moving to the Dodgers' rotation on April 6.
After allowing three runs in four innings in his lone relief outing on March 30, Wrobleski has allowed two runs in 32 innings across five starts, good for a microscopic 0.56 ERA. That’s tops among any starting pitcher with at least 30 innings, ahead of his teammate Ohtani (0.97). Wrobleski’s contributions have been key for a rotation still not at full strength, with the left-hander providing both quality and quantity.
In three of his five starts, Wrobleski has allowed no runs in six or more innings. In the other two outings, the left-hander allowed one run in seven innings on April 20 in Colorado and one run in five innings on April 6 in Toronto. Getting this type of run prevention in long starts has been huge for a Dodgers offense that had been largely scuffling until this recent series in Houston.
Here’s where things get weird for Wrobleski: he’s not striking anybody out. That’s not meant to be literal, but it’s not terribly far off. As a starting pitcher, he has struck out 13 hitters in 32 innings. That’s the fewest strikeouts of any of those same starters with 30-plus innings, while his 10.3 percent strikeout rate is also the lowest.
He topped out at six strikeouts in six innings against the Cubs on April 26, but his strikeout totals in the other four starts ranged between zero and three. It’s not uncommon to be a good MLB starter with a below-average strikeout rate, but this little swing-and-miss is tough to pull off.
“I’m out there trying to get outs. However I get them, that’s great,” Wrobleski said after his last start. “I think the strikeouts will come. I struck out people last year. That’s not something that’s a crazy worry for me. I'm never going to give back six zeroes. However I need to do it, I’ll do it and hopefully keep rolling.”
So, how does a pitcher with a 2nd percentile strikeout rate and whiff rate run this tiny of an ERA? A lot of it comes down to pounding the strike zone and preventing quality contact. While Wrobleski isn’t exceptional in either regard, he is comfortably above average for a starting pitcher.
54.7% zone rate vs. 47.4% MLB starter average
65.0% first-pitch strike rate vs. 61.0% MLB starter average
6.0% barrel rate vs. 8.8% MLB starter average
88.8 mph avg. exit velocity vs. 89.3 mph MLB starter average
“He is very understanding that the most important thing is to get outs. And you're either going to chase strikeouts and work behind and nibble and not be efficient, go shorter in games or you're going to keep going after guys and getting outs,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And I think for me, just to kind of push back on the unlucky or the lucky part of things, there's a lot of soft contact, there's a lot of lazy fly balls, soft grounders, popups and things like that.”
Wrobleski fares well in those quality contact measures, especially considering where many of those baseballs are ending up. While Wrobleski allows a ton of balls in the air (59.8 percent), many of those are not to the hitter’s pull side, where hitters do the most of their damage. Only 12.8 percent of his batted balls have been pulled in the air, 19th-best among starters (minimum 50 batted balls).
Wrobleski, however, understands the questions about the lack of swing-and-miss, especially considering that he struck out 76 batters in 66 2/3 innings mainly as a reliever in 2025.
“I’m trying to decipher where I need to go to get that miss. But a lot of times, guys know I’m in the zone,” Wrobleski said after his previous start. “I think there were probably three or four good swings today. Most of the other swings I don’t think I’d say they were on them. Some days you’re not going to get strikeouts. Some months you’re not going to get strikeouts. Some days you’re going to get a lot. It’s just kind of the ebbs and flows of the game.”
To be sure, any pitcher, no matter how talented they are, is likely getting a good amount of luck to be running an ERA this low. It’s no different for Wrobleski. No, he’s not going to strand 86.5 percent of baserunners the rest of the season. It’s also unlikely that he will run a .222 BABIP.
Even so, Wrobleski’s ERA indicators support that he’s doing a lot well to stick as a starter. His 3.27 FIP when starting makes him a top-30 pitcher among those with 30 innings pitched, while his 4.23 expected ERA (based on a pitcher’s quality and quantity of contact) also shows him to be a competent starting pitcher.
How Wrobleski will perform the rest of the year is unclear. What is clear is the young left-hander has made a strong case to stay in the Dodgers' rotation with the impending return of Blake Snell later this month.