{"id":122289,"date":"2026-05-19T19:53:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:53:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=122289"},"modified":"2026-05-19T19:53:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T23:53:40","slug":"dodgers-blake-snell-surgery-elbow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/05\/19\/dodgers-blake-snell-surgery-elbow\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers Starter Has Successful Elbow Surgery, No Firm Timeline for Return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles Dodgers starter <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/snellbl01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-19_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Blake Snell<\/a> had successful elbow surgery, according to Alden Gonzalez of ESPN. Three bone chips were removed during the procedure. The NanoNeedle surgery the left-hander underwent has now been performed two times. It is supposed to minimize the size of the incision and shave off at least one month of recovery. Detroit Tigers ace <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/skubata01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-19_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tarik Skubal<\/a> had the same procedure a few weeks ago and has already resumed throwing bullpen sessions while on the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/05\/04\/tarik-skubal-placed-on-the-injured-list\/\" target=\"_self\">injured list<\/a>. The Dodgers have yet to announce a return timeline for Snell, but in all likelihood, it will be sometime after the All-Star Break.<\/p>\n<p class=\"alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBl3E5jzxY\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 3072px; aspect-ratio: 3072\/2048;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<h2>Blake Snell Surgery Appears to Go Well<\/h2>\n<h2>On The Road to Recovery<\/h2>\n<p>Snell has yet to be fully healthy this season. The left-hander started the year on the injured list with shoulder fatigue. The wear and tear of a long postseason in 2025 was reportedly the culprit. One wonders if the sore shoulder affected the elbow. Whatever the case, the starter said he &#8220;felt something&#8221; after his inaugural start. In that start, the two-tome Cy Young Award winner\u00a0gave up five runs, four of which were earned, in just three innings. His ERA ballooned up to 12 as a result. To be fair, he did strike out five and induce a lot of soft contact, but the damage was done. The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/05\/15\/dodgers-starter-scratched\/\" target=\"_self\">Dodgers scratched Snell<\/a> from his next scheduled start, and he promptly went back on the IL.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Blake Snell underwent the NanoScope procedure today and got three bone spurs removed.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m told it went well.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Alden Gonz\u00e1lez (@Alden_Gonzalez) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Alden_Gonzalez\/status\/2056844912943853781?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 19, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Not the First to Fall<\/h2>\n<p>Ironically, Snell cut his rehab assignment short to replace starter <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/glasnty01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-19_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tyler Glasnow<\/a>, who landed on the IL with back spasms. Glasnow had to come out of a game early and seems to be sidelined annually with some sort of injury. He is going to be <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/05\/14\/dodgers-tyler-glasnow-out-longer-than-expected\/\" target=\"_self\">out longer than originally thought<\/a>, as his back &#8220;flared up.&#8221; As a result, it will be some time before he throws off a mound. However, when Glasnow is healthy, he has proven to be an ace. He is 3-0 with an ERA of 2.72 and 49 strikeouts.<\/p>\n<h2>An Insurance Policy<\/h2>\n<p>The Dodgers are known to have one of the deepest starting rotations in baseball. Even so, it has taken a hit in recent days. In an attempt to shore up the starting arms and maintain a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/02\/20\/who-will-be-dodgers-sixth-starter-2026\/\" target=\"_self\">six-man rotation<\/a>, the Dodgers acquired left-hander <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lauerer01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-19_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Eric Lauer<\/a> from the Toronto Blue Jays. The veteran left-hander will be a long reliever out of the bullpen, but will eventually swing into the rotation as needed. Unfortunately, the Dodgers are proving that you can never have enough pitching.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles Dodgers starter Blake Snell had successful elbow surgery, according to Alden Gonzalez of ESPN. Three bone chips were removed during the procedure. The NanoNeedle surgery the left-hander underwent has now been performed two times. It is supposed to minimize the size of the incision and shave off at least one month of recovery. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5226,"featured_media":105172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,1071,35],"tags":[1122,1311,2513,3082,1245],"class_list":["post-122289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dodgers","category-mlb","category-news","tag-blake-snell","tag-eric-lauer","tag-injured-list","tag-tarik-skubal","tag-tyler-glasnow"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122289"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122310,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122289\/revisions\/122310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}