The Los Angeles Dodgers made a tough decision for their NLDS roster, leaving All-Star left-hander Justin Wrobleski off of the roster. Wrobleski, who made the All-Star Game in July after an impressive first half of the season, had a 3.66 ERA through 28 appearances on the season. The left-hander had a 2.69 ERA heading into the break, and had been one of the Dodgers' most important pitchers on the year up to that point.
He struggled afterwards, though, posting a 6.13 ERA in his final 12 appearances of the season and taking a trip to the injured list with a forearm issue towards the middle of August. Wrobleski had a solid postseason for the Dodgers last year, holding opponents scoreless through four appearances, which spanned five innings. The Dodgers included several members of their 2026 rotation on their NLDs roster, but only a few of them will be starting for the team during the series.
Tarik Skubal, who they acquired from the Detroit Tigers at the trade deadline, will make his first postseason start at home in the first game of the series Saturday, and Blake Snell, another two-time Cy Young-winning left-hander, will start Sunday's game. Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start the third game of the series, and Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki are also present on the roster—though Glasnow is more likely to make a start in the NLDS than Sasaki is. The Dodgers could have used the left-handed Wrobleski in long relief, but they have other arms to fill that role as well.
All-Star lefty Kris Bubic—who the Dodgers also acquired at the deadline—is more than capable of filling that role, and Sasaki can and handle bulk relief if needed. The Dodgers' pitching staff is the strongest it has been in several years, so Wrobleski's exclusion isn't as much of a surprise as it would have been in years past. With the team they've assembled, the Dodgers will look to breeze through the NLDS against the Atlanta Braves as they aim to win their third consecutive World Series championship, which would mark the first three-peat in National League history.
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