Rotation doesn't lack for options

Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto was slated to start Team Japan's first game in the World Baseball Classic early Friday morning Pacific Time in Tokyo against Chinese Taipei, with the expectation that he would pitch three innings.

- BY JACK VITA

While the right-hander is away from Camelback Ranch, other pitchers vying for a spot in the Dodgers’ starting rotation will be under the microscope — especially with health concerns yet again coming into play.

The Dodgers are no strangers to navigating pitching injuries over the course of a long season. Last year, Yamamoto was the only Dodgers starter to not miss a turn, making 30 starts before making five more during the postseason. But other than the now-retired Clayton Kershaw, who made 22 starts last year, no other Dodger hurler started more than 18 games.

Yamamoto, right-hander Shohei Ohtani and right-hander Tyler Glasnow are locks for the rotation. But with left-hander Blake Snell

likely to open the season on injured list as he nurses a shoulder injury, and righthander Gavin Stone forced to pause any throwing activities as he attempts a comeback from major shoulder surgery, where do other potential starters stand at this stage of spring training?