The Dodgers finally win one, and now they've got a roster headache waiting on the other side — Blake Snell is coming back, and somebody's got to move. Welcome to Dodgers Daily Fancast — today we've got the skid-snapping win, the Snell return, and the question nobody wants to answer: what do you do with Roki Sasaki? One win and people are exhaling like we just won the pennant — but yeah, I'll take it, and now the front office has to actually make a tough call. Good problems to have, Devin. Let's get into it. First up, Jack Harris had this late Sunday night for Yahoo Sports — Monday, May fourth, 2026, at 1:50 AM UTC.
Starting with last month’s trip to Denver, the club’s lineup had been in a rut, averaging barely four runs per game during a 5-9 skid that derailed their hot start to the season. Over that same period, a nasty bug had been going around the clubhouse, impacting up to 90% of the roster in the estimation of one team staff member.
Dodgers snap a four-game skid in St. Louis, and the story behind the skid is apparently a nasty bug that hit up to ninety percent of the roster. Jack Harris had this one for Yahoo Sports. Five and nine over two weeks, offense basically offline — I'm not going to pretend I was chill about it. But sick? Ninety percent of the roster sick? Okay, that's a real excuse, I'll allow it. Max Muncy talking about the team losing its 'joy' and 'shenanigans' — which, look, sounds soft until you remember this guy was dragging himself out there while sick and still suiting up. A healthy Dodgers team is a dangerous Dodgers team. They just reminded everyone of that. One win and I already feel better. And now, Dylan Hernandez at Yahoo Sports gets right to the uncomfortable part.
The Dodgers have tried. They really have.
They have extended Roki Sasaki chance after chance after chance. They have honored their part of their unspoken agreement with the former Japanese phenom.
Now, with two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell close to being activated from the injured list, the Dodgers have to do what’s right— right for their team but also right for Sasaki.
Yahoo Sports is making the call: when Blake Snell comes back, Roki Sasaki goes to Triple-A. The math on the rotation doesn't really leave another option — Ohtani, Yamamoto, and Glasnow aren't going anywhere. I've been patient with Sasaki, I really have. But at some point you can't keep running him out there just to protect his feelings. Snell is a two-time Cy Young winner — you make room, period. The wrinkle is Wrobleski, who's been pitching like an All-Star. You can't exactly demote the guy who's actually performing. Sasaki is the odd man out by process of elimination. This is a good problem to have! You know what teams don't have this problem? The Giants. The Padres. They'd kill for this rotation crunch. Over at Dodgers Nation, there’s another Shohei question starting to bubble up. Dodgers Nation is teasing a tough decision around Shohei, and honestly the headline alone is doing a lot of heavy lifting — we don't have the full breakdown yet, but 'what's wrong with Shohei' is a sentence that's going to get clicks regardless of what's actually in the article. I hate that headline. 'What's wrong with Shohei' — the man has been on another planet. If something's actually off, fine, let's talk. But if this is a three-game sample size panic, I'm going to lose my mind. This is exactly what I mean about current fans. One soft stretch and it's a crisis. McCourt-era fans would have traded their own family members for a healthy Shohei Ohtani. Okay, fair — but I'm allowed to be nervous. I lived through too many Octobers going sideways to just relax. That's not being spoiled, that's trauma. We’ll have links to every story we talked about today in the show notes, so if something caught your ear, you can go read the full piece.
That’s Dodgers Daily Fancast for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.