Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Blake Snell was scratched from his scheduled start Friday, May 15 against the Los Angeles Angels. Right-hander Will Klein was inserted to open a bullpen game in his place, the Dodgers announced.
The absence is not believed to be related to the left shoulder inflammation that kept Snell off the mound for the first six weeks of the season, per reporters on the scene. The team, however, did not immediately announce a reason for the scratch.
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Snell is just six days removed from his 2026 debut, a rocky three-inning outing against the Atlanta Braves in which he allowed four earned runs and six hits in a 7-2 loss.
The two-time Cy Young Award winner missed the start of the season because of what the team said was shoulder fatigue that carried over from a heavy postseason workload. He went 3-2 with a 3.18 ERA in five starts for the Dodgers in the 2025 MLB playoffs.
Snell has a long injury history. He first landed on the injured list in 2018 with shoulder fatigue and then broke his toe in a 2019 bathroom incident before undergoing arthroscopic elbow surgery that same year to remove loose bodies in his elbow. His left adductor became a chronic problem, accounting for five IL stints over four seasons. With the San Francisco Giants in 2024, he missed the first three months with a groin and adductor strain before dominating down the stretch.
He has thrown over 130 innings in a season just twice in his career.
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He signed a five-year, $182 million deal with the Dodgers last winter, then missed four months in 2025 with shoulder inflammation just two starts into the season before returning to go 4-4 with a 2.41 ERA in nine regular season starts.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Blake Snell scratched from Los Angeles Dodgers start vs Angels today
