DETROIT, MI - SEPTEMBER 18: Tarik Skubal #29 of the Detroit Tigers looks on from the dugout prior to the game against the Cleveland Guardians at Comerica Park on September 18, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan. The Guardians defeated the Tigers 3-1. (Photo by Mark Cunningham/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
MLB Photos via Getty Images
The Los Angeles Dodgers are the favorites to capture a third-straight World Series title this season, but at least one significant weakness has emerged.
Despite collecting a variety of frontline starter arms over the last few seasons, and even with two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani pitching in Cy Young form, the Dodgers might be a little more thin than they anticipated in the rotation after losing Blake Snell to an elbow injury.
“After landing on the injured list for the second time this season, the left-hander will undergo surgery … to address the loose bodies in his throwing elbow,” Katie Woo wrote for The Athletic. “Snell will become the second MLB player to undergo the NanoScope surgery this month, following Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal.”
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Given the fact that Snell has only been healthy enough to pitch less than 65 total innings in the first two years of his five-year, $182 million contract so far, the Dodgers are hoping that the innovative surgery can hasten his return to the mound and fortify him for a significant run.
But after becoming the first big-league ace to undergo the new NanoScope procedure, Skubal sent a warning about the expectations being placed on its effectiveness.
“What’s going on right now is kind of unprecedented,” Skubal said on Thursday, according to The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen, after the pitcher threw a rehab bullpen shortly after his own surgery. “I don’t know if that’s ever really been done before. So I get it. I want to be back as fast as possible. I also want to be healthy. It does me no good to come back fast, and then something happens and I go back on the shelf again.”
Observers, including Skubal’s high-profile agent Scott Boras, have suggested that the new surgery could hasten a return to the mound exponentially. But Skubal wanted to temper some expectations as he prioritizes his long-term health and he directly “debunked” a notion that he could be back as soon as next week, Stavenhangen added.
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“There’s going to be some sort of rehab, simulated game,” Skubal added, per Stavenhagen. “I don’t know the plan there yet, but there will be a volume I need to get up to before I’m back in the big leagues.”
As desperate as the Dodgers might be to get their full rotation back and healthy before a playoff push begins, Skubal’s recovery so far suggests Snell will need a grace period, even after undergoing a groundbreaking procedure.
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