After World Series run, Dodgers preach patience in starting pitching

This offseason, Dodgers officials have emphasized the importance of managing the workload of their 2026 starting rotation after pushing that group to its limits during last October’s tough World Series run.

A few weeks before the start of spring training, Blake Snell becomes an early example.

In the aftermath of the Dodgers’ Fall Classic victory in Toronto – – which was less than three months ago – – Snell’s arm was “tired” and “exhausted,” he acknowledged Thursday, after five postseason starts plus a critical relief appearance in Game 7 against the Blue Jays.

“I was happy to be able to pitch all the time,” the left-hander told The California Post at a Dodgers charity event at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. “But it was tough.”

That’s why Snell and the team decided to let the 33-year-old slow play his winter throwing program this offseason. The plan, Snell said, is to still be ready for Opening Day in late March. But at the moment this is not yet seen as a certainty within the organization.

“You want to pick up the pace, but I have to take my time and get healthy,” said Snell, the two-time Cy Young Award winner who returned from a long-term shoulder injury last summer and played a key role in the Dodgers’ title run.

“I feel like I’m doing the right thing. I feel good. I’ve been throwing. It feels better. In the postseason, I gave everything I had for that. But come spring, I’m going to have to be patient and let my body get to 100%.”

“That’s what I learn from talking to (the team). Don’t rush. Be patient. Make sure you’re 100%. And that’s the great thing about the organization. They’re really focused on your health and well-being.”

In some ways, this is nothing new for the Dodgers. They have long erred on the side of caution when it comes to managing pitchers’ workloads. They have always prioritized long-term health and October availability above all else.

However, never before has that balance been so important.

Besides Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto presents the most obvious challenge this season. Not only did the right-hander lead the Dodgers in both regular and postseason innings last year (210 of which he combined, culminating in his back-to-back appearances in games 6 and 7 of the World Series), but he is also scheduled to pitch for Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic this spring. That will require him to get going earlier than normal and make intensive outings several weeks before Opening Day.

“Yamamoto will be an interesting case study,” manager Dave Roberts said, “given how much he has pitched in recent years.”

Download the California Post app, follow us on social media and subscribe to our newsletters

Shohei Ohtani offers another unique situation, likely getting extra rest between starts — up to “six, seven, eight days off,” according to Roberts — as he returns to full-time, two-way duties for the first time in his Dodgers career. He is also on Team Japan’s WBC roster, but it is undetermined if he will pitch in the event.

Tyler Glasnow, meanwhile, has a long injury history that the Dodgers will have to address, with the 10-year veteran never making more than 22 starts in a regular season.

For now, the Dodgers have not placed any hard inning limits on that group and will wait to see how each group develops during spring camp before formulating more specific plans.

Still, their workload is “something we definitely have to take into account,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said this winter.

“We just have to make sure we’re careful up front and say, ‘If we need extra rest here (at some point), we can do that,’” general manager Brandon Gomes reiterated.

The good news for the Dodgers is that they have some depth. Emmet Sheehan and Roki Sasaki are expected to solidify the season-opening rotation. Former top prospects River Ryan and Gavin Stone had a normal offseason after recovering from surgeries last year (with excitement around the organization particularly high over how Ryan looked before camp). Justin Wrobleski, Ben Casparius, Kyle Hurt, Landon Knack and Bobby Miller are all starting options as well.

Over the next year, the team will need almost all of them at some point.

The aftereffects of last year’s World Series title are already palpable.