Snell's got loose bodies in his left elbow, Graterol's back flared up on rehab — and somehow the panic crowd is just now catching up to what the injury report's been hinting at all week. Dodgers Daily, and no, this is not a vibe check. This is a damage assessment — Snell, Graterol, the bullpen depth chart, and whether this thing can hold together through October. We're going to take both of these separately, because loose bodies in an elbow and a back flare-up on rehab are very different problems, with very different timelines. One breath of panic doesn't cover it. Three pitchers, three different stages of busted, all at once. Fine — let's get into it. All Dodgers, with Clint Pacillas:
We've got some good news. We've got some bad news. It must be a Dodger season. Of course, the Dodgers are winning right now. Tay Oscar is hitting, but Blake Snell was scratched. He's also got those loose bodies in his left left elbow.
So yesterday the question was whether Roberts' careful pitch-count sequencing with Snell still made sense. Today, that question's basically out the window — loose bodies in the left elbow isn't something you fix with an extra day off. That's structural, and it changes whatever October plan they had on paper. And here's the part that makes it worse: this isn't the shoulder issue that kept him out in April. That was one problem. This is a second, separate problem in a different part of the same arm. You don't call that a rough patch anymore. Then you add Graterol — Fabian Ardaya confirmed his back flared up during the rehab assignment — and now you've got Snell scratched and a bullpen piece that was supposed to be back just... not back. Two dominoes in one morning. I've been the voice of calm all week, and I'm not backing off that completely, but I'm also not pretending the injury pileup is just background noise anymore. Tay Oscar hitting is the only lifeboat in this whole briefing, and I'm grabbing it. But asking the offense to carry a rotation with Snell scratched, Glasnow on his own timeline, and Graterol's back blowing up on a rehab outing? That's not a rotation model. That's a hostage situation. From r/Dodgers (205 upvotes):
Regular season Snell be like:
Look, the joke writes itself. But the 'regular season Snell' angle lets people off the hook too easy — loose bodies in the elbow aren't a performance problem, they're a medical one. The sarcasm is fair; the conclusion it implies might not be. No, I get that — but he was scratched. In May. Again. At some point the pattern is the story. From r/Dodgers (159 upvotes):
Rushed back for his bobblehead night and dipped ✌️
The bobblehead-night read is ruthless, and honestly, I respect it. Get your night, give the people a start, then peace out. Very on-brand. I'm not going to co-sign that — but I'm also not going to pretend the timing isn't uncomfortable. From r/Dodgers (90 upvotes):
You’ve got to be kidding me. I’ve never even heard of this injury before and suddenly every pitcher seems to need it. We’re gonna have to trade for another starter right? Our minor league backups are all injured too and so is Glasnow. Any idea if he can return this year?
The trade-deadline question is the right one to be asking right now. With Graterol's setback confirmed by Ardaya today, the bullpen depth just got materially thinner than it was when that question first came up — and the pressure on the front office just moved up on the calendar. Snell, Glasnow on his own track, Graterol's back — that's three pitchers all broken at the same time. At what point does somebody in the front office stop calling this a depth question and admit it's a structural emergency? Here's Matt Levine at Inside The Dodgers:
Graterol suffered a setback in his recovery from injury during a rehab assignment, according to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic.
Graterol's back flared up on him, and this will push his return back even longer. He will now undergo further evaluation.
Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic confirmed it this morning — Graterol's back flared up during the rehab assignment, his velocity was down in his last outing, and now he's been pulled off and is heading for imaging. That's not a vague 'he's day-to-day' — that's a guy who hasn't thrown a big league pitch since Game 5 of the 2024 World Series sliding further into the unknown. And this isn't even the same injury that wiped out all of 2025 — that was the labrum. Now it's the back. So he comes back from one surgery, and a different body part breaks on him during the rehab. That's not a rough patch, that's the roster depth chart actively collapsing. I've spent this week telling people the injury noise was louder than the actual damage. I'm adjusting that. Snell scratched with loose bodies in the elbow, Graterol's back on fire during a rehab outing — two dominoes in 24 hours, both sourced, both specific. The bullpen depth question just got materially worse on the same day the rotation lost its scheduled starter. Yesterday I was asking whether the high-risk rotation model is structurally broken. Today Graterol gives me the answer. It's not a hypothetical anymore — you've got Glasnow on a slow build, Snell with elbow hardware floating around in there, and now Graterol going in for back imaging. That's three pitchers broken at three different depths of the staff. The model isn't creaking, it's cracked. Got thoughts on today's episode, a story idea we should chase, or a correction we need to make? Send us a note at dodgersdailyfancast at lantern podcasts dot com. We're always glad to hear from Dodgers fans.
You'll find links to everything we covered today in the show notes, so if a story caught your ear, you can take a closer look there.
That's Dodgers Daily Podcast for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.