Whoever had April 7 in the “Rich Hill hits disabled list with a blister” pool is your winner. 

The Dodgers announced the move of Hill to the 10-day DL with a blister on his left middle finger, recalling pitcher Josh Fields from the minors to take the roster spot. 

Hill managed only 20 starts last season due to the recurring blister problem. Once he took the mound in an attempt to return but was removed from the game during his warmup pitches. He was also pulled after seven innings from a potential perfect game on Sept. 10 due to some areas on his finger looking like they might be forming blisters, per the Dodgers athletic training staff. 

So this isn’t anything new, nor is it anything we should expect to go away after a 10-day disabled list stint. 

The Dodgers signed Hill to a two-year, $36 million deal this past offseason to bring him back. He’s worth it when on the mound. Since going back to starting in late 2015, Hill is 15-6 with a 2.00 ERA, 0.93 WHIP and 170 strikeouts in 144 1/3 innings. He also shut down the Cubs for six scoreless innings in Game 3 of the NLCS. 

The downside is Hill obviously can’t be counted on as a full-time starter. When he is in the game, isn’t there concern that his fingers will start to get “hot” again, like in his possible perfect game? 

In the Dodgers’ position, you take the bad with the great. 

The Dodgers do have depth to absorb the loss, especially if this is only short-term. Behind Clayton Kershaw, there’s Kenta Maeda, Brandon McCarthy, Hyun-jin Ryu, Alex Wood and Ross Stripling while Julio Urias is biding his time in Triple-A. 

On the latter point, some might be pining for the Dodgers to just throw Urias into the rotation with Hill down. After all, he’s talented enough to be the Dodgers’ second-best pitcher this season. He’s also only 20 years old and the Dodgers’ have brought him along as slowly as possible. Last season, he worked 127 2/3 innings between the minors, regular season and playoffs. It’s hard to see them wanting him much more than, say, 145 this season. As such, his starts early in the season will likely be only 2-3 innings at a time and that’s not happening in the majors for obvious reasons. 

So even if Hill is out for a while, expect Wood and/or Stripling to be holding down the fort. Don’t expect a Urias promotion for a while.