Dodgers trade for Eric Lauer
With Blake Snell having elbow surgery on Tuesday, Tyler Glasnow on the injured list with back spasms, and River Ryan only one start back from a minor league injured list stint, the Dodgers had five starting pitchers for their six-man rotation. So it makes perfect sense that they acquired left-hander Eric Lauer from the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday for cash considerations.
Lauer was in a similar position on the depth chart in Toronto, and said after the use of an opener before his April 17 game, “It’s definitely different. To be real blunt, I hate it. I can’t stand it.” More from SportsNet:
“It messes with your pre-game routine,” he said. “We’re creatures of habit. It changes the rhythm and routine. It’s a little harder to time things out…
“You can make it work the best you can. Hopefully, it’s not something that we will continue doing. But that’s above my pay grade.”
It didn’t help that Lauer wasn’t pitching well for the Blue Jays. After a strong 2025 season, this year he struggled with a 6.69 ERA and 5.82 xERA in eight games, including six starts. He struck out 26 and walked 16 in his 36 1/3 innings, with his 11 home runs atop the American League when he was designated for assignment on Monday.
In his eight-year career with the Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, and Blue Jays, Lauer has a sparkling 2.69 ERA in 15 games, including 13 starts, with 69 strikeouts and 27 unintentional walks in 77 innings. That includes 5 2/3 scoreless innings in two appearances in the 2025 World Series, pitching in Games 1 and 3.
Lauer is making $4.4 million this season after losing his salary arbitration case in the offseason, with about $3.17 million remaining. He’ll be a free agent at season’s end.
To make room for Lauer on the 40-man roster, pitcher Brusdar Graterol was moved to the 60-day injured list. Graterol, working his way back from 2024 shoulder surgery, pitched in four rehab games for Triple-A Oklahoma City before getting shut down this week after pitching on Tuesday.
Graterol tweeted on Saturday, “Baseball is not easy. But it’s no reason to give up. LFG.”
Dodgers scratch Blake Snell before his second start of season, place him on IL with loose bodies in left elbow
The Los Angeles Dodgers scratched left-handed pitcher Blake Snell on Friday in Anaheim, hours before their series opener against the Los Angeles Angels. The Dodgers later announced that they’ve placed Snell on the injured list with left elbow loose bodies.
Snell had surgery in 2019 to remove loose bodies from his pitching elbow and was out from late July to mid-September. The Dodgers have backdated his IL designation to May 12 and recalled lefty Charlie Barnes.
For Friday’s game, the Dodgers have pivoted to right-handed reliever Will Klein, who will get the ball first in a bullpen game for the NL West leaders.
The news of Snell’s latest injury comes just six days after the 33-year-old made his long-awaited season debut. Shoulder fatigue that led to a slower-paced offseason wound up sidelining him at the start of the year.
In his first major-league outing since Game 7 of the 2025 World Series, the one-time All-Star gave up four earned runs and six hits in just three innings in a 7-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves last Saturday.
Despite those numbers, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts described Snell’s performance as “something to build off of,” via The Los Angeles Times.
After all, while Snell issued a pair of walks against the Braves last week, he did strike out five batters. Turns out, though, that he’ll likely have some more rust to work off whenever he takes the mound again.
Snell is a two-time Cy Young Award winner. He earned that honor in 2018 and 2023, leading MLB in ERA each of those seasons, the first with the Tampa Bay Rays and the second with the San Diego Padres.
In 2024, he pitched a no-hitter while playing for the San Francisco Giants. Last year, his first with the Dodgers, he shouldered quite the workload in the postseason. The seasoned southpaw made six appearances, including five starts, piling up 41 strikeouts in 34 innings on the bump and helping the Dodgers defend their World Series title. Along the way, he registered a 3.18 playoff ERA. While Snell struggled in his two World Series starts, both losses to the Toronto Blue Jays, he delivered 1 1/3 innings of shutout ball in a Game 7 relief appearance.
Earlier that the season, he spent four months on the IL because of discomfort in his throwing shoulder. This offseason, Snell told the media his shoulder “never felt great” last year after he joined the team on a five-year deal reportedly worth $182 million.
Snell took a more patient approach this time around, but, when given an opportunity to start last week versus the Braves — as Tyler Glasnow headed to the IL — he chose to rejoin the Dodgers’ rotation rather than make one final minor-league rehab start.
Less than a week later, he’s landed back on the IL, now with loose bodies in his left elbow.