This story was excerpted from Sonja Chen’s Dodgers Beat newsletter. This edition was written by Brent Maguire. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Blake Snell is peaking at the right time as the Dodgers embark on their quest for a third straight World Series title.
Snell, who was shelved for roughly three months due to having loose bodies removed from his left elbow, returned from the injured list on Aug. 11 and has dazzled in his three starts.
In that first outing off the IL, Snell struck out 10 Royals hitters, walked just one batter and allowed a lone run in six innings. While he hasn’t been as dominant from a swing-and-miss perspective in his last two outings, the results have nonetheless been excellent. He allowed one run in six innings and struck out five batters in Colorado on Aug. 17 and tossed six scoreless innings in his last start against the Pirates on Sunday.
Snell’s trajectory is following a similar path as his 2025 season, his first year with the Dodgers. The left-hander made just two starts to begin his Dodgers tenure before landing on the injured list until August. Snell, of course, returned to dominate down the stretch and cranked it up a notch in October. In 34 innings across six outings in the playoffs, Snell had a 3.18 ERA and struck out 41 batters.
Snell was a key cog in what was a dominant Dodgers rotation in the postseason, a group that could look even better this time around. With the addition of Tarik Skubal and Shohei Ohtani’s imminent return to the rotation, Los Angeles could have an embarrassment of riches come October. With Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Skubal, Ohtani and Snell running at full strength -- not to mention Tyler Glasnow -- the Dodgers are following a similar blueprint as last year.
Dodgers’ bullpen question marks
While the bullpen issues are not nearly as drastic as they were last year, the Dodgers are also experiencing problems closing out games as the season comes to a close.
That, too, follows the blueprint of the 2025 Dodgers, a group that relied heavily on its starters in October. Edwin Díaz, signed to a multiyear contract over the offseason to serve as the closer, has been ineffective and injured, recently landing on the injured list for the second time. Luckily, Tanner Scott, who also experienced a tough first year in L.A. last year like Díaz, has been much better in Year 2 with a 2.50 ERA and 65 strikeouts.
Still, Scott sliding into the closer’s role again has shifted the order of operations and put more pressure on others to step up. The flamethrowing Edgardo Henriquez is one of those relievers to step up, as the 24-year-old has broken out with a 2.87 ERA and 59 strikeouts in 53 games. Alex Vesia and Jack Dreyer give the Dodgers a pair of solid middle-relief lefties, but the club is still trying to figure out what other arms they could rely on in October.
Perhaps the club is just banking on its glut of starters adding more certainty in the postseason. That could be Glasnow, who shifted to the bullpen for half of his six postseason outings last year. We could see Roki Sasaki thrive in a relief role again, although he just landed on the IL with a right middle finger blister. The same can be said for Justin Wrobleski, who is currently on the IL with elbow inflammation, but is expected to return in September.
And then there’s the plethora of injured Dodgers pitchers that could potentially make a push for an October role. Blake Treinen, Will Klein, Gavin Stone, Kris Bubic and Ben Casparius are just some of the rehabbing Dodgers pitchers expected to return sometime in the coming weeks.
In simpler terms, the Dodgers’ bullpen might be struggling right now -- L.A. relievers had a bottom-10 ERA (4.44) since the All-Star break entering Wednesday’s games -- but this group could look drastically different in the playoffs.