Blake Snell set to make first start vs. Giants as a Dodger (just not the SF ones)

At long last, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell will face the Giants as a member of the Dodgers organization. No, not our beloved SF Giants. Instead Snell is scheduled to take on San Francisco's Single-A affiliate the San Jose Giants in a minor league rehab start on Wednesday night.

The perennially injured turncoat is doing his annual routine of easing into the season with an IL stint. He did the same thing last season and was fine by the end of the year, just in time for the playoffs. He is on the shelf with “shoulder fatigue” which is the same ailment he purportedly dealt with last season. 

Snell did get a bit heated on a recent video game live stream when someone questioned his injury so it does seem like he may be dealing with some issues stemming from pitching in the postseason last year. He complained of exhaustion earlier this year which drew a fair number of chuckles from Giants fans who saw Madison Bumgarner put the team on his back in the 2014 playoffs and probably even from some Dodgers fans who saw what Yoshinobu Yamamoto did last year.

Blake Snell is doing his annual 'ease into the season' strategy

Snell will take the ball for the Ontario Tower Buzzers, LA’s Single-A affiliate. The plan is for him to make four rehab starts before he returns to the Dodgers sometime in May. We know how Snell has to feel just right before he’s ready to pitch in the big leagues.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner did make a rehab start against the Sacramento River Cats last year, but he’s still yet to face the San Francisco Giants after he opted out of his contract with San Francisco following the 2024 season and signed a five-year, $182 million deal with the Dodgers in free agency.

He was banged up last season and the timing just didn’t work out for him to face the Giants. The only thing Giants fans had to look forward to after Snell jumped ship and joined the Dodgers was booing him relentlessly when he took the mound at Oracle Park in that dreaded Dodger blue.

Unfortunately, with the new schedule that limits teams to 13 games against their division rivals in the regular season, the next time the Dodgers will be back at Oracle Park is for the last series of the regular season in late September.

Maybe Snell will be ready by then, or maybe he will get some much-needed rest before another Dodgers playoff run at that point. He’s seemed to do a pretty good job of avoiding Giants fans last year and this year so maybe his plan is to skirt by his entire five-year contract with the Dodgers without having to pitch at Oracle.

The rehab start tonight will at least be in San Jose so maybe some faithful Giants fans who are not able to make it to the game between the Giants and Dodgers in San Francisco will be in attendance and can boo Snell a little bit.

Dalton Rushing may be the primary Dodgers villain for Giants fans right now, but Snell will always be high on that list of villains for ditching the Giants to join the Dodgers so hopefully Giants fans get to let him hear it at some point.

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