Blake Snell heads to rehab assignment, Dave Roberts confirms timeline for Dodgers return

Blake Snell finally has a date on the calendar. And it’s not for a simulated game or another bullpen session.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts confirmed Saturday that Snell will begin a minor league rehab assignment next week. According to Jack Harris of the California Post, Roberts said the left-hander will likely need four or five starts in the minors before he’s ready to rejoin the big league rotation.

That puts Snell’s potential return somewhere in the second half of August, assuming everything goes smoothly. Which, given how this season has gone for him, is not a guarantee.

Snell has made exactly one start in 2026. Injuries have kept him on the shelf for almost the entire year, and the Dodgers have had to patch together a rotation without their biggest offseason addition. For a team that leads the majors with a 61-34 record, that’s both impressive and a little unsettling. Imagine what they could do with a healthy Snell down the stretch.

The two-time Cy Young winner signed with Los Angeles ahead of the 2025 season and looked every bit the ace they expected. In 11 starts that year, Snell posted a 2.35 ERA. But he made just 12 total starts for the Dodgers before the elbow issues crept up again. The talent has never been the question. It’s the availability.

Roberts didn’t sound worried. The team has been cautious with Snell all along, and the fact he’s finally going on a rehab assignment suggests the elbow has responded well to treatment. Four or five rehab outings is a significant number, though. That tells you the Dodgers want him fully stretched out and sharp before they even think about turning him loose in a pennant race.

Los Angeles already has one of the deepest pitching staffs in baseball. Adding Snell to the mix — even if he’s not an immediate ace — gives them another weapon for October. And in the postseason, the Dodgers have learned the hard way that you can never have too many arms.

The NL West is basically locked up. The Dodgers hold a 13.5-game lead over the second-place Diamondbacks as of Saturday. Arizona and Los Angeles were set to play later that night at Dodger Stadium, but the gap is wide enough that the division race is barely a race anymore.

So the focus shifts to getting healthy for October. Snell is the next big piece to slot back in. If he gets through these rehab starts without a setback, the Dodgers rotation gets a whole lot scarier. If not, they’ve shown they can win without him. But they didn’t pay him to sit in the dugout.