By now the rhythms of a typical Dodgers season are familiar: An offseason spending spree induces hysterics; a rash of longterm injuries and poor individual seasons puts a bit of a damper on the 162; they arrive in the playoffs, imperious as ever, ready to do damage. During the Dodgers' 2-1 victory over the Brewers in Game 1 of the NLCS, that damage was done by Blake Snell.
Up until a few weeks ago, you may have forgotten that Snell was even on the Dodgers' roster. His signing in the offseason—five years for $182 million—was one of several that the Dodgers executed simply because no other team in the league seemed willing to spend money on a two-time Cy Young winner. In any other context, on any other team, Snell's first year in Los Angeles could be considered a disaster. He made two starts at the beginning of the season before a shoulder injury took him out of action for four months. On another type of team, one where Snell would have been the highest-paid player on the roster and the only free-agent prize of the last few years, such an injury would have probably sunk the season.
The Dodgers learned a long time ago, however, that all money can be well spent if you spend enough of it. You throw $700 million at Shohei Ohtani and $325 million at Yoshinobu Yamamoto so that you can survive $60 million only buying 29 combined regular season starts from Snell and Tyler Glasnow. This is what a payroll the size of the Dodgers' truly buys: not an unbeatable superteam, but one that can keep its head above water no matter what. Keep breathing long enough, and you might end up with a suddenly fit and firing ace ready to lead the playoff rotation.
Snell has won all three games he's started this postseason, and has struck out 28 batters in 21 innings while allowing just two runs. Monday's outing against the Brewers was his finest yet—eight innings of one-hit ball in which he faced the minimum number of hitters and struck out 10. A guy who made his name as a nibbler who was happy to rarely go past the fifth inning so long as it meant he never gave an opponent something to hit has looked like something else these playoffs. The Brewers were confronted with a backwards-pitching lefty who looks, if you'll allow me speak some words of a dead language, like a classic "innings-eater." It was the kind of start that forces observers to appreciate the craft of pitching. Freddie Freeman spent a portion of his postgame press conference marveling at Snell's changeup, which the Brewers could never get a hold of due to Snell's ability to throw it at multiple speeds.
It's easy to kvetch about a 93-win team that can just pull a refreshed Blake Snell off the shelf when the games start to really matter, and depending on how the rest of this series plays out, Brewers fans will have plenty of opportunities to do just that. But it was only two winters ago that Snell was a free agent and reigning Cy Young winner who was unwanted by the entire league. It was around that time that Snell started thinking about wanting to become a Dodger, and why wouldn't he? Establish yourself as one of the few serious franchises in the league, and serious players are going to take notice.
"I remember saying, 'Freddie, Mookie, Shohei in that lineup, I can't wait to pitch,'" said Snell during his postgame press conference. Or not pitch, even. Freddie, Mookie, and Shohei bought Snell 93 wins while he was mostly stuck in the training room, and now he's back to return the favor. Just like the Dodgers planned it.
