WASHINGTON — As the Dodgers constructed their 2025 roster this winter, they made pitching depth one of their top priorities.
In its first test on Tuesday night, it failed in disastrous fashion.
During the weekend, the Dodgers suffered their first injury blow of the year, placing veteran starting pitcher Blake Snell, their $182-million offseason signing, on the injured list with shoulder inflammation.
On Tuesday, they struggled to replace him on what was supposed to be his scheduled start day, losing 8-2 to the Washington Nationals after triple-A call-up Justin Wrobleski was knocked around for eight runs in five innings.
“Obviously, losing Blake for whatever period of time, certain guys are going to get opportunities,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “You want them to try to not to put too much pressure on a particular outing and go out there and compete.”
The good news for the Dodgers: They shouldn’t be without Snell for long.
Though the left-hander said he had been pitching through shoulder discomfort for the last three weeks (including during his first two starts of the year, when he logged just nine total innings while walking eight batters and giving up seven runs; albeit only two earned), an MRI scan showed no structural damage in Snell’s shoulder. A meeting with head team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache on Monday confirmed that Snell will not need an injection or any other medical intervention, either.
The plan now is to have Snell begin throwing again at the start of next week.
“That was best-case scenario,” manager Dave Roberts said of the prognosis, raising the likelihood of Snell’s hope to be back on the mound in a couple of weeks.
“Just rest until Monday,” Roberts added, “and we’ll pick back up from there.”
But, barely two weeks into the season, Snell’s absence had already forced the Dodgers (9-4) to start dipping into their highly touted pool of pitching depth — one they desperately tried to replenish this offseason after nearly running out of healthy arms during last October’s run to a World Series title.
And while their options looked good on paper entering the year, Tuesday served as a reminder that, for now at least, they are far from having foolproof insurance plans.
Coming off a turbulent debut season in 2024, when he had a 5.70 ERA in eight big-league outings, Wrobleski’s return to the majors did not go any better Tuesday night.
Two batters into the game, the former 11th-round draft pick gave up a two-run home run to James Wood. In the second, Wrobleski got to two outs before giving up a single, walking three straight to plate a run, then yielding a two-run single to former Dodgers farmhand Keibert Ruiz. A clean third inning was immediately followed by three more runs in the fourth, including another two-run blast from Wood.
“It’s just about doing your job when you’re called upon, and today I didn’t do a good job of that,” Wrobleski said. “You’ve always got to stay ready. I felt I did a good job of that. But unfortunately came up today and had a tough outing. That’s baseball.”
On a windy 46-degree night in the nation’s capital, the Dodgers’ long innings on defense did little to help their bats warm up.
During their first three trips to the plate, they were shut out by opener Brad Lord — a 24-year-old right-hander who made the opening day roster for the Nationals (5-6) after working at a Home Depot this offseason.
Not until the fifth inning, when the deficit had ballooned to 8-0, did the Dodgers finally get on the board via a slump-busting home run from Andy Pages (who had started the season four for 35, but reached base three times Tuesday night).
After that, Kiké Hernández’s solo blast in the eighth (his fourth hit of the year, all of them being homers) was the team’s only other scoring. In all, the Dodgers had just eight hits while striking out 15 times.
“Just kind of up and down the lineup, the at-bat quality, we’re just not having team at-bats,” Roberts said, with the club now sporting just .230 team batting average. “The results are showing.”
It’s on the mound, however, where the Dodgers face their most pressing concerns.
The Dodgers will turn to another depth arm for Wednesday’s series finale, planning to call up Landon Knack to make a pre-scheduled spot start. Given their reluctance to throw Japanese starters Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki on four days’ rest, such roster scrambling figures to be a common occurrence until Snell’s return, potentially drawing other names such as Bobby Miller (who has a 2.97 ERA, but also eight walks, in his first two triple-A starts this year) into the short-term picture.
“I don’t think that anyone expected us to go unscathed all year, whether it’s out of the ‘pen or starter. It’s where we’re at,” Roberts said before the game.”But I do think that we knew that we had a lot of viable options to backfill.”
Granted, the Dodgers do not have their full complement of pitching depth at the moment.
Tony Gonsolin opened the season on the injured list after tweaking his back while lifting weights near the end of spring training. He is currently on a rehab assignment with triple-A Oklahoma City, where he is scheduled to pitch three innings on Wednesday, and remains several weeks away from being available, according to Roberts.
Clayton Kershaw (who is still working back from offseason toe and knee surgeries) and Emmet Sheehan (who is completing his rehab from a Tommy John surgery early last year) are on the 60-day injured list, and won’t be options until the middle of the season.
Shohei Ohtani, meanwhile, is still being slow-played in his pitching program — remaining limited to weekly bullpen sessions, and not yet cleared to use his full pitch mix or throw at top velocity.
“He understands that the goal is to make sure he’s firing on all cylinders towards the end of the season and into October,” Roberts said. “We’re in lockstep.”
In the meantime, though, it leaves a team that was built to have ample pitching depth this season in a suddenly precarious place for the next few weeks.