Part of the spring training ritual is figuring out which pitchers are a little behind and which may not be ready for the start of the season. It’s inevitable and it happens to every team.
The first domino for the Dodgers fell Thursday, when Blake Snell during a community team event at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. said its offseason throwing program has been limited after the grueling final months of 2025. This calls into question his preparation for opening day.
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This shouldn’t come as a surprise with Snell, a classic great-when-healthy pitcher who rarely pitches a full season. He has pitched at least 130 innings twice in his 10 major league seasons (2018, 2023) and won a Cy Young Award both years.
Don’t take this as a slight on Snell. The Dodgers knew what they were getting into when they signed Snell to a five-year contract. Just like they knew who they were going to get when they traded and extended Tyler Glasnowwho pitched 100 innings three times in his 10 seasons. Both Snell and Glasnow were healthy throughout last season and into October, and the Dodgers led their rotation to a second straight championship.
Last year was the idealization of the Dodgers’ annual goal of having the big names all healthy by October. This strategy also requires the depth to fill gaps in the six months of the regular season. To that end, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman on the Dodgers Territory Podcast, spoke Thursday about the 2026 roster“This is the most complete and best collection of weapons I have ever known.”
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Snell, Shohei Ohtani, Glasnow, Emmet Sheehan and Roki Sasaki are the top six on the depth chart, but there are many other starting pitchers potentially available as well.
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Gavin Stone and River Ryan are back after recovering from surgeries and missing all of 2025. Justin Wrobleski and Ben Casparius have played hybrid roles in the majors and could start if needed. Landon Knack has another year of options to fill when called upon.
If recent history is to be believed, the Dodgers will need all of those pitchers, and probably more, in 2026.
Dustin May and Clayton Kershaw were second and third on the 2025 Dodgers in innings pitched during the regular season. Can was processed on the trade deadlineand Kershaw only pitched twice in 17 playoff games. In 2024, Stone and Glasnow were the only Dodgers to complete the first 90 innings and neither was available in the postseason.
At least seven Dodgers pitchers have started 10 games in each of the last five seasons, and at least 10 Dodgers have started five games in each of the last four seasons. In each of the last two years, only two Dodgers started 20 games during the regular season.
|
Year |
Starters |
20 departures |
10 departures |
5 departures |
The first 6 departures |
|
2025 |
17 |
2 |
7 |
11 |
116 |
|
2024 |
17 |
2 |
8 |
10 |
112 |
|
2023 |
17 |
4 |
8 |
10 |
111 |
|
2022 |
12 |
4 |
7 |
10 |
131 |
|
2021 |
19 |
3 |
7 |
8 |
128 |
These current top six on the 2026 depth chart combined for 93 starts last season. Over the past five seasons, the most for the top six starters combined is 131 starts, with an average of 120 starts per year. That still leaves plenty of other departures to take into account. But the Dodgers are used to this.
