MLB Mailbag: Dodgers, Phillies, Twins, Tigers, Astros, Cardinals

This week’s mailbag gets into the Dodgers’ rotation, the Phillies’ outfield, my favorite and least favorite moves of the offseason, the Twins’ and Tigers’ approaches, the Astros’ infield logjam, and the Cardinals’ return for Brendan Donovan.

Drew asks:

Is there a world where the Dodgers get involved on another SP? Dodgers are clearly planning to “load manage” the starters in addition to running the 6 man and Friedman has publicly stated that in a perfect world he is a seller at the deadline (à la Dustin may last year). Why not sign Giolito, Bassitt, or even Gallen to an above-market 1 year salary and try to flip them at the deadline (I’m assuming that the QO for Gallen is slightly mitigated because of the prior penalties for Diaz and Tucker).

I’m excited to see Stone and Ryan but it’s still not clear what they will look like post injuries. This would theoretically be another way to leverage the cash on hand advantage and keep the farm restocked given the current draft pick penalties they have to deal with.

Greg asks:

How in the world will the Dodgers manage to limit the innings of their top starters this season? Will a 6-man rotation be enough?

Let’s take a look at the Dodgers’ rotation:

Yoshinobu Yamamoto: The 27-year-old made a total of 24 starts as a rookie in 2024, tallying 112 2/3 innings.  He missed nearly three months due to triceps and shoulder injuries.  Not only did Yamamoto avoid the IL in 2025, he pitched 173 2/3 regular season innings over 30 starts and finished third in the NL Cy Young voting.  Then he tacked on another 37 1/3 postseason innings over five starts, capped by a Game 7 no-rest 34-pitch relief outing.  That epic performance won him World Series MVP.  Yamamoto jumped 98 1/3 innings last year and is slated to pitch in the World Baseball Classic.  But it’s worth noting that in the regular season, 18 of Yamamoto’s starts were on five days rest and the other 12 were on six or more.  That final Game 7 relief performance was his only postseason outing with fewer than five days rest.
Blake Snell: Snell, 33, tossed just 61 1/3 regular season innings last year over 11 starts due to a four-month bout with left shoulder inflammation.  He was Dominant Snell upon his return and added 34 postseason innings to bring his total to 109 (including minor league rehab time).  Last week, Jack Harris of the California Post wrote, “Snell and the team decided to have the 33-year-old slow-play his winter throwing program this offseason. The plan, Snell said, is to still be ready for Opening Day in late March. But at this point, that is not seen as a certainty within the organization.”  I get the “as long as he’s ready for the postseason” outlook here, but Snell has a checkered injury and may start the season on the IL.
Tyler Glasnow: Glasnow, 32, is another “good when he’s available” type.  He managed 90 1/3 regular season innings over 18 starts, pitched another 8 2/3 on minor league rehab, and then added 21 1/3 in the postseason to reach 120 1/3 last year.  When the Dodgers traded for Glasnow in December 2023, I explored his injury history in an email-only subscriber article.  The upshot was that Glasnow suffered a forearm strain in 2019, avoided surgery, and then “pitched 86 total innings in 2020, a third of them in the high-stress playoff environment. His innings total ranked fourth in baseball that year.”  He unsurprisingly went down for Tommy John the following year, and also had to recover from a flexor strain and knee surgery – during the lockout when he couldn’t communicate with the Rays medical staff.  He returned from that in 14 months nonetheless.  Glasnow was not treated conservatively by the Rays, in my opinion.  To be fair, I thought he’d hold up better with the Dodgers, but his 2024 season ended on August 11th due to elbow tendinitis and he lost 73 days in 2025 mostly due to shoulder inflammation.  It’d be tough to count on even 140 total innings for Glasnow.
I don’t need to explain Shohei Ohtani to you.  He was initially handled carefully on the mound post-Tommy John in ’25, tallying 47 regular season innings as a sort of MLB rehab and another 20 1/3 in the postseason.  Ohtani reached 140 innings in each of the 2014-16 seasons in Japan and topped out at 166 in MLB in 2022.  He won’t be pitching in the WBC.  I’d be reluctant to pencil him in for more than 140 innings total this year, but it’s never wise to bet against Ohtani.
I haven’t surveyed every team, but Emmet Sheehan is probably the best “fifth starter” in baseball.  The 26-year-old had Tommy John surgery in May 2024 and returned in a speedy 13 months.  His August and September were especially dominant last year.  Sheehan was used in relief in the postseason and mostly struggled.  He reached 100 1/3 total innings last year, his second-highest total after 2023’s 127 frames.  Sheehan is yet another Dodgers starter you wouldn’t want to count on for more than 140 innings.
Roki Sasaki projects to have the sixth spot after a rocky MLB debut.  He went on the IL in mid-May with a shoulder impingement, missed more than four months, and returned as a reliever.  Even 100 innings from Sasaki would be a win, and he hasn’t yet shown he can be an effective MLB starter.

Dodgers starters ranked third-lowest in MLB with 783 1/3 regular season innings last year.  Clearly that isn’t a problem for them; set 800 as the goal and assume you’ll need six different guys who can manage 50+ innings in relief.  Is the current group set up to reach 800 innings, and is another addition worth pursuing?