The Los Angeles Dodgers made a change to their rotation order this weekend by switching start days for Tyler Glasnow and Emmet Sheehan.
Glasnow took the mound against the Texas Rangers in the series opener, a decision manager Dave Roberts made with the 32-year-old’s preference in mind.
“It was more of just Tyler likes to pitch more frequently,” Roberts explained. “That’s something he’s alluded to us many times over, that if there’s an opportunity to kind of get him to pitch sooner, then he’s open for it.”
Glasnow is coming off a good, albeit limited, 2025 season. The right-hander had a 3.19 ERA and 1.10 WHIP across 90.1 innings. He began the 2026 season back-to-back quality starts, before allowing four runs in six innings against the Rangers.
Meanwhile, Sheehan has had some trouble out of the gate after an encouraging performance last year. His inability to limit walks from Spring Training has carried over into the regular season, with five walks allowed in nine innings so far.
Thus, the decision to change the pitching order allowed the Dodgers to address multiple factors.
“You know what? I think it’s both,” Roberts said. “I think it’s just more of if we can give Emmet a little extra time to kind of work through some things, and I think that the last one was good. And then also sort of appease Tyler’s desire to pitch more frequently, then it’s a win-win.”
Roberts hypothesized that Glasnow asked to pitch more often because he likes where he’s at with his delivery and doesn’t want to lose that feeling.
The Dodgers’ starting rotation has largely performed well this season, especially Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani. Justin Wrobleski also had a good showing in his first start of the year.
Better performances from Roki Sasaki and Sheehan would solidify the rotation in the elite category. For Sheehan, it would also help build his case to stay in the rotation once Blake Snell and other potential options are back in the mix.
Emmet Sheehan’s velocity
Another lingering concern with Sheehan so far this year has been a decline in fastball velocity. During the spring it was attributed to simply being in the process of building up, particularly after he missed some time due to falling under the weather.
But the 26-year-old takes the mound Saturday with his heater averaging 93.9 mph so far this season. Sheehan’s fastball averaged 95.6 mph during the 2025 season.
Sheehan has maintained health is not to blame for the decrease, but rather mechanics.
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