The Los Angeles Dodgers activated Kirby Yates off the 15-day injured list and placed Blake Snell on the paternity list ahead of Saturday’s game against the San Diego Padres.
The move comes one day after the Dodgers activated Tanner Scott off the 15-day injured list.
Snell landing on MLB’s paternity list allows him to take up to a three-day leave to be with his wife for the birth of their child. A player must miss at least one day when put on paternity leave. The paternity list was added to MLB’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in 2011, and amongst the Dodgers was previously used by Shohei Ohtani this year.
Snell and his wife, Haeley, previously had a son in June 2024.
Snell started for the Dodgers in the series opener on Friday and turned in a fantastic outing, but suffered the loss at Petco Park. The left-hander pitched seven innings with just two runs allowed on six hits, striking out five and walking two.
Since coming off the injured list, Snell has been fantastic, posting a 1.96 ERA over four starts, throwing 23 innings with 26 strikeouts to seven walks. In his two starts from Aug. 9-16, he allowed no runs in 11 innings.
Overall this season, Snell has posted a 1.97 ERA and 1.38 WHIP across 32 innings.
Kirby Yates returns to Dodgers bullpen
Yates was placed on the 15-day IL retroactive to July 29 due to lower back pain. It was the second time he’s been sidelined this season, with the first stint seeing him miss multiple weeks with a right hamstring strain.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts believed there was a chance the two injuries were correlated. While the official injury designation for Yates’ most recent issue was lower back pain, it seems the Dodgers were never able to identity what exactly was the root of the trouble.
Despite that, it never seemed to affect his recovery. The Dodgers initially projected that Yates would be the first of the remaining injured to return to the active roster first, but Scott beat him to the punch on Friday.
Yates threw 19 pitches in a simulated game on Aug. 13. Like Scott, he also began a rehab assignment on Tuesday with the Triple-A Oklahoma City Comets. He completed one scoreless inning, not allowing a hit while striking out one and walking a batter. He threw 21 pitches, 13 of which were strikes.
It was his one and only appearance for the Comets on this rehab assignment.
Yates is 4-3 with 13 holds, three saves, five blown saves, a 4.31 ERA and 1.31 WHIP in 39 appearances this season.
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