Entering the second matchup of this weekend's series versus the Tampa Bay Rays, the Los Angeles Dodgers received quite a boost. Friday night's 5-0 win over the Rays allowed the Dodgers to maintain their three game NL West lead. Now heading into Saturday's game, the team announced on X (formerly Twitter) that Snell would be activated from the injured list.
“The Los Angeles Dodgers activated LHP Blake Snell from the injured list and optioned RHP Paul Gervase,” posted the official team page on Saturday morning.
Snell will pitch in his first MLB game since April 2nd. He geared up for today's return with four rehab starts in the minors, getting his left shoulder back to full strength. Now, as Los Angeles continues their quest towards another World Series title, the team is starting to get healthy at the right time. With only a couple of months left before the postseason arrives, can Snell get back to his former Cy Young winning form, starting with today's game against his former team the Rays.
Can Blake Snell help Dodgers
get back to World Series?
Getting Snell back this soon was likely one of the reasons why the Dodgers mostly stood pat at the MLB trade deadline. The front office led by president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes were uncharacteristically quiet, as years past have shown that they usually pull the trigger on a deal or more. Yet, as many contenders like the San Diego Padres and New York Yankees made multiple trades, Los Angeles instead decided to wait for names like Snell to come back.
It's a bold strategy, but it's one that could pay off for Gomes, Friedman and the rest of the team's brass. After all, Snell is better than almost every arm that was available at the deadline. Adding him to a playoff rotation that would include Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow (not to mention having Clayton Kershaw and Roki Sasaki in reserve) would make Los Angeles very hard to beat. Will it be enough to capture World Series title number nine in a couple of months?
