Those who support the Boys in Blue are likely asking themselves: “When is Clayton Kershaw coming back”
In a word, soon.
Kershaw went on the 60-day injured list last month. As such, he’s not technically available to return to action until May 17.
While reports indicate that Kershaw’s arm and shoulder feel good, it’s more so recovering from a toe injury which plagued him much of last season.
Kershaw made his first start for Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate Wednesday, throwing three shutout innings. He’ll continue to make rehab starts, and as long as he’s healthy, will likely return in mid-May.
It will be fascinating to see how Kershaw is employed for the duration of the year. While the Dodgers have built a deep collection of arms, injuries always tend to crop up during the dog days of the season. Couple that with general ineffectiveness, and there’s no doubt L.A. will need Kershaw to perform at a high level.
At the same time, with said depth on the roster and no real sense of urgency to push for a playoff spot (at least at this point in the year), the team will likely ease Kershaw into action without causing him to labor in any real way.
Aside from Blake Snell and Kershaw, the Dodgers currently are working with a rotation featuring Tyler Glasnow, Roki Sasaki, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Dustin May. Yamamoto and May in particular have been fantastic to begin the year. Landon Knack, Bobby Miller, Justin Wrobleski, and Tony Gonsolin also figure to be options that L.A. can use at any given point this season, as well as Shohei Ohtani.
