The Dodgers are placing one star pitcher on the injured list while activating another from it sooner than expected.

After leaving a Wednesday start in Houston following just one inning because of back spasms, Tyler Glasnow was placed on the 15-day IL, the Dodgers announced Friday, dashing initial hopes that his injury would be minor enough to prevent him from missing time.

However, the Dodgers can immediately replace him in the rotation with two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell — who was originally scheduled for one last rehab outing with Single-A Ontario but will now instead make his season debut with the Dodgers in Saturday’s game against the Braves, as The California Post first reported.

“[We asked] if he was open to taking the five innings here versus on rehab, and he couldn’t be more excited to do that,” manager Dave Roberts said of Snell, who had been sidelined since the start of the season after battling shoulder fatigue throughout the winter. “It just allows us to kick the can a little bit more with Glas.”

The maneuver also means the rest of the Dodgers’ current six-man starting pitching group will remain intact for at least the next couple weeks; nullifying recent speculation about who among Justin Wrobleski, Emmet Sheehan and Roki Sasaki would lose their rotation spot upon Snell’s return.

Now, Wrobleski will follow Snell in Sunday’s series finale against Atlanta. Sasaki, who had been the Dodgers’ projected starter Saturday, will have his next outing pushed back to Monday against the Giants.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani will continue to round out the unit.

“We have through the weekend to kind of read and react a little bit,” Roberts said of the team’s upcoming rotation plans.

Glasnow left his Wednesday outing after he said his back “gave out” while warming up before the start of the second inning. After the game, he described the issue as relatively minor, noting he has dealt with similar back problems going all the way back to his high school years.

Because of that, he and Roberts sounded optimistic that an IL stint wouldn’t be needed.

Alas, the club ultimately elected for a more conservative route with the 6-foot-8 right-hander –– even though an MRI he had Thursday showed “nothing really significant” beyond his back spasms, according to Roberts.

“[He’s feeling] much improved,” Roberts said of Glasnow. “It was tough for him to get his uniform off the other day. But it was a spasm, and we got past that, so he feels considerably better now.”

When Roberts spoke to reporters before Friday’s game, he insisted the team was still debating whether to put Glasnow on the injured list, suggesting a decision wouldn’t come for another day or two.

Asked why the team hadn’t just proactively placed Glasnow on the IL, Roberts pushed back, saying: “Well, you also have to layer in the player. And players, if they feel healthy, then it’s hard to just say, ‘You can’t participate,’ when they feel healthy.” 

Evidently, Glasnow didn’t feel healthy enough after all to remain on the active roster for now.

Having Snell ready to return, of course, likely factored into the Dodgers’ willingness to put Glasnow on the IL.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner had made three minor-league rehab outings over the last several weeks, building up to four innings in his most recent appearance with Triple-A Oklahoma City last Sunday.

Because of that, he will probably be limited to five innings in Saturday’s outing. Still, it will give him a chance to pick up where he left off last year, when he produced a 3.18 ERA in six postseason games to help anchor the Dodgers’ rotation during their run to a World Series title. 

In last year’s regular season, the $182 million signing went 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA, although he missed most of the first half of his debut Dodgers campaign with an initial shoulder problem that flared up on him again after the World Series.

Snell won’t be officially activated until Saturday, with reliever Paul Gervase instead being called up to provide extra length for the bullpen Friday.

But once he is, it will mark not only a quicker-than-anticipated return to live action but also one that won’t cost anyone else in the rotation their job. At least not yet.

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