Longtime Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw has been sidelined for the entirety of the 2024 season to this point after undergoing shoulder surgery over the offseason, but recently began a rehab assignment as he eyes a potential return sometime next month. That rehab assignment has already hit a snag, however, as manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register) today that the veteran southpaw has felt “a little bit of soreness” in the aftermath of his rehab start for the club’s High-A affiliate in Rancho Cucamonga earlier this week.
That soreness continued today for the veteran lefty when he threw a light bullpen session, and Roberts indicated that the club is considering pushing back his next rehab start- which is currently scheduled for Tuesday- depending on how he feels in the coming days. Kershaw is expected to play catch tomorrow, and how he feels after that session could determine whether or not the Dodgers go ahead with the planned outing. The potential setback is a frustrating one, as a relatively speedy return by Kershaw would be hugely impactful for a rotation that recently lost both Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Walker Buehler to the injured list.
Those injuries left the Dodgers to turn to rookie right-hander Landon Knack in the fifth starter role behind Tyler Glasnow, Bobby Miller, Gavin Stone, and James Paxton. Outside of that group of five, however, the club is lacking in starting depth meaning further injuries could prove problematic for the club. Even setting aside L.A.’s quickly evaporating rotation depth, it’s worth noting that the 36-year-old lefty is almost assuredly one of the club’s five best starters to begin with; after all, the future Hall of Famer hasn’t posted an ERA north of 3.55 since his rookie campaign back in 2008 and managed to put together a 2.46 ERA across 24 starts last year despite playing through shoulder issues.
Roberts also provided more positive injury updates to reporters (including Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times) this evening regarding right-handers Dustin May and Brusdar Graterol. The manager indicated that both pitchers have begun to throw bullpen sessions and called the sessions “promising.” While the timelines for each player’s return are still unclear, Roberts expressed confidence that both would return to action before the 2024 season comes to a close.
May, 26, has had a frustrating MLB career to this point. The righty debuted late in his age-21 season back in 2019 and enjoyed some success over his first two big league campaigns, with a 2.98 ERA and 3.96 FIP in 90 2/3 innings of work, first out of the bullpen in 2019 and then as a member of the rotation during the shortened 2020 campaign. May went on to win the World Series with L.A. during the pandemic-shortened campaign while pitching out of the bullpen during the postseason but returned to the rotation in 2021.
Unfortunately, he made it just five starts into the 2021 campaign before undergoing Tommy John surgery and has not put together a wire-to-wire big league season since. While the right-hander has pitched to an impressive 3.21 ERA and 3.59 FIP since the start of the 2021 campaign, he’s also been limited to just 101 innings across 20 starts during that time by the aforementioned Tommy John and a flexor tendon procedure he underwent in last July. It’s not clear whether the Dodgers hope to return May to the rotation upon his return to action or if he’ll be ticketed for the bullpen, but if healthy he figures to be an impactful arm for the club in whatever role he takes on.
As for Graterol, the 25-year-old hurler has been one of the club’s most reliable relievers since he was acquired from the Twins prior to the 2020 season. In 173 2/3 innings of work for the club since then, Graterol has pitched to an exceptional 2.69 ERA with a 3.24 FIP. He’s struck out just 18.9% of batters faced during that time but has generated an extraordinary 62.5% groundball rate as a Dodger while limiting free passes to just a 5.5% rate. Graterol figured to once again factor into the club’s high-leverage plans at the back of the bullpen this year until those plans were scuttled by a shoulder injury during Spring Training that eventually led the club to shut the righty down in late April. Should he return before the end of the season, he’d likely return to the back of the club’s bullpen alongside closer Evan Phillips.
therealt_rev
1st world problems…
Shadow Banned
I love Kershaw but he’s gonna get clobbered in the Playoffs. Not sure why the dodgers don’t realize that. 90mph doesn’t do it against locked in hunters come October.
thebudlightknight
Hmmm gee it’s almost like they want to take it slow and get him to full strength so that’s doesn’t happen… who knew?
Yanks4life22
I’m absolutely shocked about the Stanton injury! Shocked I tell you! Who could’ve predicted he would be terminally injured before July?!?!? Nobody I tell you nobody. People tell me he is built like a Greek god. He is invincible! Fear Giancarlo! He can’t be stopped oh crap he walked he’s out for the season.
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
I believe you may have posted under the wrong thread ?
gbs42
Bringing up Stanton in a Dodgers post is… something.
vincent k. mcmahon
I know a pair of guys or a pair of Young Bucks from Rancho Cucamonga.
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
Not one of my favorite Grateful Dead songs.
highflyballintorightfield
No way to avoid this, unfortunately. Kershaw was always going to rush coming back, that’s just who he is, Hopefully he hasn’t overdone it and can still return later. May and Graterol are bigger news, haven’t had updates on them for a while.
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
Dodgers desperate for depth starters…hey I heard Trevor Bauer is auditioning for teams? Reconciliation & reunion ???
MLB Top 100 Commenter
I’ll give Trevor credit that he is pitching well in the Mexican League, but the likelihood of the Dodgers bring back Bauer is the same as the likelihood they will rehire Ippy-ky-yay as their translator.
MLB Top 100 Commenter
I have felt 100% confident that Kershaw would make it back for long enough to competently pitch in the regular season for long enough to break 3,000 strikeouts. Kershaw is a first ballot hall of famer, maybe even unanimous. And a great guy. But he might not have a hundred innings left in his career, so better that they take their time.
texasguscc
Ok… when Kershaw signed, it was said that he didn’t want to pitch the whole year. Then we heard he had “shoulder surgery”? Was it to remove a wart? He was healthy at year’s end… God bless the guy! If his club is willing to let him sit out the first half and just be ready for the playoffs, what do I care? But can we stop saying that he is recovering from “shoulder surgery”? Didn’t he have “shoulder surgery” last year too?
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
I don’t understand why some teams are so completely evasive when it comes to player injuries. WHy all the secrecy?
BlueSkies_LA
Because it’s nobody business but their own?
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
I’m not so sure. I think the fans are owed some transparency on these issues. It also seems like it’s the teams who instantly want to obscure everything (I guess for competitive reasons?) but if a journalist is allowed to ask the player directly, they are more than happy to say “yeah I had this procedure done, and it will keep me out approx X months.” Player usually more than amenable to keep their fans in the loop, the teams not so much. Just seems silly.
Guard the Vogt
You don’t have a need to know on players injuries until the team or player tells you… We are fans, not front office personnel.
BlueSkies_LA
I honestly can’t remember hearing any player talk openly about the details of some medical procedure they’ve undergone. Fans are owed some things they don’t often get from team owners, but this isn’t one of them.
BlueSkies_LA
He was healthy at year’s end? Where you been hiding yourself?
fox471 Dave
Texas: if you are going to post, perhaps, and I am just spitballing here, you should pay attention to the facts. He had shoulder surgery last year. Everyone, with one glaring exception (you), knew he would not be ready until July, at the earliest.
Motor City Beach Bum
Time to call the Tigers about Flaherty. Tigers need a young SS and C and offence. Flaherty, Canha and a good BP arm for Cartaya, Joendry Vargas, Yeiner Fernandez and Miguel Vargas. Before you start overvaluing prospects, the shine is off Cartaya, Joendry is a million miles away from MLB, Miguel doesn’t seem to have a place in LA and all the writeups I have read say Detroit should get a solid return for Flaherty alone.
halloffamernobodycares
You’re gonna trade these legit prospects for Canha and Flaherty and an unnamed reliever when Flaherty and Canha are are both FA at the end of the season…
…because Kershaw is a coin flip as to whether he’s gonna be ready?
Motor City Beach Bum
Right because Kershaw is the only pitching injury LA has?
Who is highly rated out of the names I threw out? Cartaya? He WAS highly rated and Miguel Vargas WAS highly rated once upon a time. Neither one has a place to play. The other Vargas is 18 isn’t he? It’s not like I threw Rushings name out.
You act like Canha and Flaherty suck. Flaherty is one of the top.pitchers in the league and Canha just gets on base year after year.
LA is smart enough to know unproven prospects are just capital. They go fill holes like that every year.
halloffamernobodycares
Aren’t the Dodgers 17 games over .500 and almost 10 games ahead in the NL West? And you’re going to trade for a couple expiring contracts and give up four legit prospects for said expiring contracts?
Do you watch the Dodgers at all?
It’s hardly panic time in Los Angeles.
Motor City Beach Bum
They built up your lead before everyone got hurt. Who replaces Betts production…Rojas, Lux, Taylor? Good teams fill holes. I’m not a Dodgers fan but they fill holes…either by trading or calling someone up. Maybe they fill their gaps a different way. We shall see.
muddust
Can you imagine being Kershaw, sidelined all year to come back just in time to be knocked out in the NLDS?
fox471 Dave
Can you imagine you, after that silly post, eating your words in front of the world, as Kershaw and the Dodgers enjoy their World Series victory parade?
BlueSkies_LA
Please don’t feed the trolls.
muddust
Why on earth would I assume anyone (besides you) would give a damn about what I said, let alone remember it when the dodgers choke in the first round of the playoffs?
Americanentropy
How about LA taking the seaon more seriously? Cavan Biggio and parade of journeymen in the pen? A bottom of the line up that is well just embarrasing. Fortunte to play in the weak West, come playoff time a different story.
BlueSkies_LA
The division isn’t why they have the second-best run differential in baseball. No argument about Biggio, the bottom of the order, and rolling out the endless bullpen retreads and castoffs. This has always been a Friedman thing. Only some of these issues can be fixed internally. They have a lot of work to do before the trade deadline.
Americanentropy
I was hazard that the positive run differential is related to weak opponents. Their quest is a championship and this team is not ready to face quality playoff baseball. So far Friedman has been “cute” and it appears the time has come to loosen the log jam and trade one or two of their prospects to obtain legit help i.e., read not a Biggio – like move.
BlueSkies_LA
The metrics on schedule strength are questionable, but with the more balanced schedule they don’t matter as much since every team now plays every other team.
leftcoaster
It’s truly amazing how many quality pitchers they’ve lost to injury and are still in first place.