Welcome to Dodgers Today Top Five Today for Thursday, April 23, 2026. Bringing you the biggest Dodgers news, game recaps, and fan reactions.
Yeah, and today feels like one of those Dodgers news cycles where the talent is obvious and the stress is doing wind sprints.
All right, let’s get into it.
First up, from Sebastian Abdón Ibarra: Dodgers set initial goals for Blake Snell's rehab assignment
So with Edwin Díaz now expected to miss significant time, the Dodgers at least get one encouraging pitching update in Blake Snell. Dave Roberts says Snell is starting his rehab assignment with Single-A Ontario, and the early plan is controlled buildup, not a rush back to the majors.
I think the expectation is for him to go three innings, and probably six days later, do another three innings and go from there. But yeah, it’s good to see him around and with the guys. I know he’s chomping at the bit.
Roberts said the goal is to get Snell stretched to five innings, and the minimum is probably three rehab starts, with a fourth looking more likely. And that matters, because the Dodgers do not need a ceremonial comeback here. They need actual length.
Good. No superhero nonsense. If he comes back too early and gives you two chaotic innings and a trainer visit, that’s not a return — that’s content.
Exactly. Snell’s upside is obvious, but with this roster, the Dodgers can afford to be patient if it means getting a real starter back instead of chasing a headline.
And let’s be honest: “chomping at the bit” is what every pitcher says right before the team ignores that part and sticks to the calendar anyway.
Right, and for good reason. Roberts is signaling discipline here, especially after the staff already took a major hit. One decent rehab outing is not going to change the timeline by itself.
Next, from the Orange County Register, Bill Plunkett: Will bulk of Dodgers’ closer role fall to Tanner Scott again with Edwin Diaz out?
This is one of the immediate practical questions after the Díaz injury. Tanner Scott has a ton of experience in the role from last season, but the results were mixed. He converted 23 saves in 2025, but also led the majors with 10 blown saves. So the question is not just whether he can close. It’s whether the Dodgers want to live with the volatility that comes with him.
Whenever the phone rings.
That was Scott’s answer, basically repeated to different versions of the same question. And it’s the right clubhouse answer. But Plunkett’s reporting makes clear this is still a real strategic issue for Dave Roberts. The Dodgers may prefer flexibility over naming one permanent closer, especially if they do not fully trust one arm in every ninth-inning spot.
That quote is perfect reliever-speak: no drama, no clue, just vibes and adrenaline. But yeah, the bulk probably does fall to Scott, because somebody has to take the scary outs.
He’s probably first in line, but that does not mean he owns the job. The Dodgers have enough bullpen depth that matchup-based decisions still make sense, especially when the save situation is not always the hardest pocket of the game.
If he’s blowing saves again, “closer by committee” turns into “everybody grab a fire extinguisher.”
And that’s why this matters right now, not later. Díaz’s absence does not just remove a name from the back end — it changes how aggressively Roberts has to manage the whole bullpen.
Next up, from MLB: Draft pick acquired in Lux deal off to hot start at High-A in 2026
A quieter but genuinely interesting Dodgers development here: Charles Davalan, the club’s number eight prospect, is off to a lively start at High-A Great Lakes. MLB pointed to a two-homer game and noted that he has reached base in 12 of his first 15 games. Davalan was the 41st overall pick in last year’s draft and came over in the Gavin Lux trade with Cincinnati, alongside Mike Sirota.
No one will confuse Charles Davalan for Shohei Ohtani, but that doesn't mean the 2025 Draft pick can't reach the seats every now and then. Or in this case, twice in one game ... again.
The early batting average is not eye-popping, but the broader point is that real offensive impact is showing up already. For the Dodgers, this is what system health looks like: not just top-heavy stardom, but useful players making noise early in the pipeline.
Exactly. This is why the Dodgers keep winning trades people get emotional about. They turn “hey, nice little prospect” into “wait, why is this guy mashing already?”
Fair, though it’s also important not to overread a hot April in High-A. Development is not linear, and power flashes at this level are promising, not conclusive.
Sure, but a prospect who actually does something is better than the imaginary kind fans fall in love with.
Also true. Davalan does not need to become a star tomorrow for this to look like smart asset management. He just needs to keep giving the Dodgers reasons to believe they found another real bat.
From SInow, SInow: Dodgers Lineup vs Giants: Shohei Ohtani Hitting and Pitching, Alex Freeland Out
This one is partly lineup news, partly standings pressure, and partly the continuing Ohtani discourse machine. The Dodgers entered the game tied for first in the National League West after the Padres kept feasting on the Rockies. The article also notes Ohtani leading off while pitching, Alex Freeland sitting out, Alex Smith back at catcher, and Freddie Freeman back with the club after the birth of his daughter.
One notable angle in the piece is that opposing managers have criticized the two-way player rule, arguing Ohtani gives the Dodgers an unfair advantage.
Opposing managers have criticized the two-way player rule, claiming the Los Angeles Dodger gets an unfair advantage.
That complaint is not going away as long as Ohtani is healthy enough to do both jobs. But the rule exists because almost nobody can do this, and he can.
Calling Ohtani “an unfair advantage” is like calling Mookie Betts “annoyingly talented.” Yes. That is the sport. Deal with it.
Exactly. If the complaint is that one player creates roster flexibility by being historically unique, that sounds less like a loophole and more like a front office correctly using a once-in-a-generation talent.
If your answer to greatness is “the rulebook should save me,” you already lost.
And there is still a practical baseball side here beyond the rhetoric. With the Dodgers briefly not alone in first, every lineup decision and every Ohtani start carries a little more early-season weight than fans probably want in April.
Finally, from the game reaction stream around the Dodgers-Giants opener, the story was a 3-1 loss that left fans stewing over missed chances.
The Dodgers had just three hits, went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position, and left eight men on base. Yoshinobu Yamamoto settled in after a rough first inning, but the offense and defense gave fans plenty to complain about.
From the r/Dodgers postgame discussion, one fan summed it up like this:
Welp. We can’t win if we are 0-4 with RISP. Terrible batting overall on top of uncoordinated and horrific defense tonight.
That is blunt, but it captures the mood. In a one-run or two-run type game, the Dodgers usually trust their lineup to create one big inning somewhere. On this night, it never came.
Three hits, eight left on, one run. That’s not a slump narrative — that’s just a bad night wearing expensive clothes.
It was a bad night, and the frustration makes sense, especially against San Francisco. But there’s also a difference between a flat offensive game and a deeper structural problem. This lineup has earned some benefit of the doubt.
Benefit of the doubt, sure. Free pass for ugly defense, no.
Fair. The cleanest takeaway is that the Dodgers wasted a recoverable start from Yamamoto, and those are exactly the games that linger in a division race.
A couple reactions worth noting before we go. On r/Dodgers, there was a highly upvoted post arguing that Alex Vesia has earned the right to become a free agent, while also opening with a personal note of support for Vesia and his wife after their loss last November. That stood out because it mixed baseball performance with real human context — something fan spaces do not always handle well, but sometimes absolutely can.
And the game thread volume was enormous again, more than three thousand comments for Dodgers at Giants. That is interesting not just because fans are engaged, but because rivalry games in April are already feeling emotionally expensive this season.
Translation: the Dodgers fan internet is fully calibrated to “first-place anxiety” before May. Incredible stamina, honestly.
That’s Dodgers Today Top Five Today. This is a Lantern Podcast.