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The Los Angeles Dodgers are facing an interesting rotation outlook for the 2026 season, at least for Opening Day.
Southpaw Blake Snell, along with emerging young arm Gavin Stone, are looking like they will miss the start of the season, per Dave Roberts, and this leaves at least two slots open in a rotation that will feature potentially six arms.
The battle for a spot has gotten interesting, especially with Roki Sasaki struggling, who will likely get a spot, but things remain unsettled.
Dodgers Nation’s Doug McKain laid out his projected starting rotation in case Roki Sasaki is not ready to assume the mantle.
Sasaki is likely to get a spot in the rotation, though, after giving up four runs and getting no outs during the first part of his start on Tuesday, McKain is not sure that is the case.
“Everyone out there is talking about a six-man rotation, which is still possible. You can give guys extended rest. Right now, I would see a five-man rotation with Yoshinobu Yamamoto as your ace,” McKain said.
He’s the ace of aces right now, based on what he did. Shohei Otani goes right behind him.
“Three — Glasnow; four — Sheehan; five — I go with Justin Wrobleski.
“And if you’re talking about a six guy, I think right now the edge would go to a River Ryan, but I would prefer to see River get a couple starts down in Triple A, unless he really wows and the command looks a lot better.”
The Roki Sasaki Dilemma
Sasaki, especially over Ryan or Wrobleski, should get the rotation shot unless he continues to collapse as he did against the Cleveland Guardians, when he only threw three strikes.
Manager Dave Roberts is still confident Sasaki gets a chance in the rotation, but he reaffirmed that Sasaki is still a work in progress.
“I think it can change, but I don’t think it’s going to change before we break,” Roberts said.
“We’ll just keep building him up. We view him as a starter and want to give him every opportunity to succeed.”
Do you think Sasaki deserves a shot in the rotation?