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Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell is indeed getting a brand-new surgical procedure that could save him up to a month in recovery time, becoming possibly the second MLB player to ever do it.
General manager Brandon Gomes said Snell is indeed getting the NanoNeedle procedure on Tuesday, Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic reports.
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May 11, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting Blake Snell (7) warms up prior to the game against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
That procedure, the same one undergone by Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, is expected to a shed a month off of Snell’s recovery time.
When will Snell return from his injury?
It’s hard to say for sure, but taking that one-month estimate from Ardaya and putting it toward the two-to-three-month timeline for the previous procedure, that’s a month or two for Snell, so in May or June.
But Skubal was throwing bullpen sessions within two weeks of the procedure.
As The Athletic details, Skubal had a classic quip for reporters when he greeted them in a Monday press conference.
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Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal talks to reporters before a game against the Boston Red Sox on May 4, 2026, at Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan.
“Bet you guys didn’t expect to see me here,” he said.
There’s a chance Snellzilla could be saying the same thing, and the Dodgers might need it.
Fellow starter Tyler Glasnow has been “shut down from throwing per now,” Ardaya said, another loss for an already depleted pitching corps.
How has Tarik Skubal recovered so quickly?
As mentioned, Skubal was the first known MLB player to undergo this procedure, and he used the same surgeon as Snell, Dr. Neal ElAttrache.
“I think the first thing they said was, ‘The recovery will be faster,’” Skubal told Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic about his decision. “I think I stopped listening after that. It’s like, ‘All right, I’m good with it if you’re good with it.’ You trust the doctors. ElAttrache is the best surgeon in the world. … If he’s comfortable with it, I don’t see why I wouldn’t be comfortable with it.”
Skubal’s agent, Scott Boras, has used the alternative term “Skubal Scope” for the NanoNeedle 2.0.
Skubal has jokingly put some distance between himself and the phrase.
“(ElAttrache) is the one who said it, and Boras ran with it,” Skubal told Stavenhagen. “Let’s clear the room there. I saw a lot of stuff about that. That was not our camp.”
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