The Dodgers were hoping Blake Snell would be back on the bump sooner than later.

Derailed with shoulder soreness, he recently participated in some long toss to presumably ease his way back into action.

Naturally, the next step would involve Snell ramping up in the form of a bullpen session. According to a report from The Orange County Register, Snell threw 30 pitches to gauge his pain tolerance. This marked the first time he threw on the mound since being put on the IL a few weeks ago.

Snell offered an update that may make Dodgers fan a bit unhappy. The left-handed ace admitted that “the pain lingers here and there.”

“Hey — I’m 32 now, not 23. Once I get throwing, I’m good,” Snell said. “When I play catch, I don’t feel it. When I get out here, I’m good. It’s like when I wake up I gotta get it going.”

From here, the plan is for Snell to throw another bullpen session. The odds are he probably could throw multiple sessions before being sent out to throw a simulated game — or perhaps even participate in a Triple-A rehab contest. Assuming all the pain will have subsided by then, Snell would then rejoin the team.

To somewhat assuage concerns those may have, Snell made it seem like things were trending in the right direction.

“I just want to pitch. Am I worried about it? No,” Snell said. “I was worried about it when I went on the IL but not any more. It feels way better.”

The rotation certainly has seen some upheaval as the year has progressed. While Dustin May, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, and Roki Sasaki have done the heavy lifting, Snell’s injury coupled with the expected returns of Clayton Kershaw, Shohei Ohtani, Tony Gonsolin, and others has certainly taken a toll on the bullpen (also experiencing injuries).

Glasnow’s injury scare on Sunday didn’t exactly help, either.