With Blake Snell hurt, Dodgers must make use of record-breaking $417.5 million payroll: Get through it

The Dodgers are about to find out how good they really are.With $69-million closer Edwin Diaz sidelined until some time after the All-Star break, the team is bracing itself for the possibility that $182-million starting pitcher Blake Snell will be on a similar schedule.Snell is expected to undergo an operation next week to remove bone chips from his elbow, people familiar with the situation told The California Post.The traditional timeline to return from such operations is 14 weeks, but that could be significantly reduced by the use of a new surgical instrument.Even then, Snell will likely be out until July or August.In which case, the next couple of months will serve as the ultimate stress test for baseball’s most expensive roster. The Dodgers were built to withstand losses like Snell’s and Diaz’s.

In theory, their $415-million payroll bought them a margin for error that should allow them to overcome the absence of any player — or two or three.In theory, they are so much better than any other team that they should be able to win without playing their best baseball.Can they do what they did last year when they became repeat World Series champions?They’re about to find out.They’re about to find out if their offense is as explosive as it was in the first three weeks of the season or as impotent as it’s been for the majority of the last month.The Dodgers will have to figure out how to score runs with a version of Shohei Ohtani who looks worn down from being a full-time two-way player.

Fully committed to Ohtani’s vision of playing both ways, they were already showing zero interest in asking their cash cow to make significant reductions to his pitching or hitting responsibilities. This used to be a choice, but it’s not one anymore, not with Snell down, not with Tyler Glasnow not expected to be ready to pitch when he’s eligible to be activated from the injured list next Friday.That means the previously-slumping Teoscar Hernandez has to maintain his...