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It would be inaccurate to say that that Blake Snell saw what teammate Edwin Díaz and fellow two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal both had and decided he wanted in. Clusters of injuries, such as the wave of broken hamate bones from this spring or the more recent outbreak of loose bodies in pitchers’ elbows, are just coincidences instead of sudden fads or outbreaks. Nonetheless, like Díaz and Skubal before him, Snell will undergo surgery on Tuesday, with the expectation that he’ll return this season.

This is already the second interruption to Snell’s season, and the third time that the now-33-year-old lefty has landed on the injured list since signing a five-year, $182-million deal with the Dodgers in November 2024. Last season, Snell made just two starts for the Dodgers before inflammation in his left shoulder forced him to the IL in early April. The Dodgers’ depth and focus on having their top starters available for the postseason allowed him to take his rehab slowly. He missed four months and made just 11 regular season starts, posting a 2.35 ERA and 2.69 FIP in 61.1 innings, then followed that by pitching brilliantly in the first three rounds of the playoffs, allowing just six hits and two runs in 21 innings against the Reds, Phillies, and Brewers, highlighted by eight innings of one-hit shutout ball in the NLCS opener against Milwaukee. His two starts against the Blue Jays in the World Series were less successful; he pitched his way into jams that neither he nor the Dodgers bullpen could escape unscathed, and was charged with five runs in each. He did come out of the bullpen to get four very big outs in the eighth and ninth innings in Game 7 before yielding to the heroics of Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

In January, Snell admitted that he felt “exhausted” at the end of the World Series. Mindful of his injury history — this is a pitcher who’s made more than 27 starts in a season just twice — and his lingering shoulder soreness, the Dodgers had him delay his offseason throwing program to the point that he didn’t even pitch in the Cactus League. He began the season on the injured list before going out on a rehab assignment on April 22, and totaled just eight innings over three starts, maxing out at four innings and 55 pitches before being brought to Los Angeles.

Snell finally made his season debut on against the Braves May 9, but lasted just three innings and allowed five runs (four earned) while striking out five. He was lined up to take the ball against the Angels on Friday, but was scratched after he reported feeling “something in the back of his elbow” while playing catch on Thursday and “just couldn’t continue,” as manager Dave Roberts explained. The Dodgers used Will Klein to start a bullpen game against the Angels (a 6-0 victory), while testing revealed that Snell had loose bodies in his elbow, meaning fragments of bone or calcified cartilage that break off due to the wear and tear induced by throwing thousands of pitches. Sometimes those loose bodies don’t cause any problems, at least for awhile, but when one of them drifts into a joint and locks it up, or lodges in tissue and causes persistent inflammation and soreness, then it’s time to see your friendly neighborhood orthopedic surgeon. Roberts, who played the outfield during his 10-year major league career, underwent surgery to remove loose bodies from his left (throwing) elbow in 2007. When Díaz went down, he commiserated, saying, “Loose bodies are asymptomatic until they’re not, so I can relate to what he was going through.”

Snell is actually no stranger to all of this, either, because in July 2019 while with the Rays, he had loose bodies removed from his elbow. He returned to action in mid-September, spending just 57 days on the IL including his time before undergoing surgery. That quick return didn’t give him time to fully rebuild his pitch count, but with the postseason looming, the Rays decided a few innings from Snell here and there was better than none at all; his three regular season starts post-surgery totaled six innings, and his lone postseason start lasted 3.1 innings and 58 pitches.

Barring setbacks, the Dodgers won’t be fighting the calendar the way the Rays were in 2019, but they do have additional cause for optimism about a return sooner rather than later. When Dr. Neal ElAttrache operated on Skubal earlier this month, he performed the surgery using something called the NanoNeedle Scope 2.0, a relatively new device that’s about half the diameter of a traditional arthroscope (1.9 millimeters vs. four millimeters, according to The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen). The new needle requires a smaller incision, and with it the procedure needs 65% less fluid to insufflate the joint, producing less swelling, less pain, and a faster recovery. Skubal had surgery on May 6, and was playing catch from 60 feet by May 15. The Tigers haven’t announced a timeframe for his return, but the New York Post’s Jon Heyman reported that a return in four to six weeks is a possibility, with a two-month return “seen as a conservative estimate.” By comparison, Díaz, whose surgery was performed by ElAttrache but did not involve the same tool, is expected to return in three months.

Skubal wasn’t the first high-profile athlete to undergo surgery with this kind of NanoNeedle; according to Stavenhagen, Winnipeg Jets (and Team USA) goalie Connor Hellebuyck had a torn meniscus repair and cyst removal performed by Jets team physician Peter McDonald in late November and was back in action in three weeks. While ElAttrache had used the new device before, Skubal was the first high-profile athlete on whom he used it, because the conditions — including the location of the loose body (just one, in his case) — were right. The Dodgers are hopeful that Snell, who like Skubal is also a client of agent Scott Boras, is a candidate as well. From the Orange County Register’s Bill Plunkett:

ElAttrache is also going to perform the surgery on Snell next week and the NanoNeedle is an option, according to a source. ElAttrache will determine whether he can extract the loose bodies using that procedure after determining the specific location of the loose body and how much it is integrated into the surrounding ligaments.

…“It’s supposed to be a lot quicker recovery, so we’re encouraged about that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the potential procedure. “We expect him certainly back this season.”

In spite of Snell’s minimal contribution thus far, the Dodgers have had one of the game’s top rotations. In fact, they lead the National League in WAR (5.3) and innings (267.2), and rank second in ERA (3.19) and fifth in FIP (3.69). Shohei Ohtani has posted a minuscule 0.82 ERA and a 2.37 FIP in 44 innings, while Tyler Glasnow (2.72 ERA, 3.25 FIP) has been his usual stingy self and Justin Wrobleski (2.12 ERA, 3.42 FIP) has enjoyed a surprising breakout given his contact-oriented profile. Yamamoto (3.60 ERA, 3.92 FIP) has been prone to giving up homers but has averaged 6.25 innings per turn, and after rocky beginnings, both Emmet Sheehan (4.54 ERA, 3.94 FIP) and Roki Sasaki (5.09 ERA, 5.53 FIP) are trending in the right direction. Sasaki set career bests with seven innings, eight strikeouts and zero walks in Sunday’s start against the Angels, and has walked just 5.1% of hitters over his last five starts, compared to 15.9% over his first three.

Snell’s lone appearance came just three days after Glasnow exited his start against the Astros after just one inning due to back spasms and was put on the IL, meaning that the Dodgers didn’t have to choose whether to send Sasaki, Sheehan, or Wrobleski to the bullpen. While Glasnow has resumed playing catch, the team has already said that he won’t be activated when he’s first eligible to return on May 23. With off days on each of the next two Thursdays, the Dodgers don’t need a sixth starter to make it through the rest of this month without disrupting any of the other starters’ schedules, but even so, the Dodgers have preferred to give Ohtani six or seven days of rest instead of five, doing so for all but one of his starts. With Landon Knack, Bobby Miller, and Gavin Stone all on the 60-day IL, the Dodgers faced a situation where the only healthy starting pitcher on the 40-man roster who wasn’t already in the Dodgers rotation is 27-year-old prospect River Ryan. Ryan enjoyed an impressive four-start run with the Dodgers in July and August of 2024, but underwent Tommy John surgery in the middle of the latter month and didn’t return to action until this spring. He made just two starts at Triple-A Oklahoma City before being sidelined by a right hamstring strain, and just returned to action on Friday, working four innings and reaching 100 mph with his fastball six times out of 57 total pitches, with a high of 100.9 mph.

But rather than rush Ryan into action, on Sunday the Dodgers acquired Eric Lauer from the Blue Jays in exchange for cash considerations, transferring reliever Brusdar Graterol to the 60-day IL to open up a spot on the 40-man roster. Lauer, a 30-year-old lefty, was tagged for a 6.69 ERA and 6.92 FIP in six starts and two relief appearances totaling 36.1 innings for Toronto. His numbers are ugly just about everywhere you look — he served up an American League-high 11 homers while allowing a 12.5% barrel rate and striking out just 16% of hitters — but he was quite useful as a swingman for the Blue Jays last year, putting up a 3.18 ERA and 3.85 FIP with a 23.9% strikeout rate in 104.2 innings. He was similarly effective in the postseason, with a 3.12 ERA and 3.337 FIP in 8.2 innings, including 5.2 scoreless frames against the Dodgers in the World Series. It would hardly be a shock if the Dodgers found a tweak or two to restore him to effectiveness.

Even if Lauer merely makes a spot start before Glasnow returns, he could stick around longer, because on Sunday the Dodgers placed Jack Dreyer on the IL due to left shoulder inflammation. The 27-year-old Dreyer has been a workhorse for the Dodgers, making 67 appearances (third on the team) and totaling 76.1 innings with a 2.95 ERA and 2.82 FIP as a rookie last year. His 20 appearances this season is tied with Tanner Scott for the team lead; in 21.2 innings — the last 11.1 of them scoreless — he has a 2.08 ERA and 2.45 FIP. The Dodgers are hopeful he won’t need much more than a minimum stay, but with another capable lefty in the fold, they can take a more conservative course.

They won’t rush Snell, either. As they’ve amply demonstrated while winning back-to-back championships, the Dodgers are in this for the long haul. Still, the prospect of Snell’s recovery time being shortened is tantalizing. If he and Skubal can demonstrate the ability to return to action more quickly than previous pitchers who had loose bodies removed, the procedure could gain popularity (at least when it’s applicable), giving the sport another real breakthrough in treating injuries.