Veteran Dodgers pitcher expects to open season on 60-day IL

The Dodgers officially re-signed
Clayton Kershaw earlier Thursday but it surely appears he received’t be serving to them early within the season. He tells Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic that he expects to be on the 60-day injured listing to begin the 12 months, doubtless returning about when these 60 days are up. That implies he’s focusing on a late Could return.

Kershaw’s 2025 timeline has by no means been clear till now. He announced in early November that he would require some surgical work on his decrease left leg. A part of that was as a consequence of a bone spur within the massive toe on his left foot, which despatched him to the IL final 12 months. The surgical procedures would additionally tackle a ruptured plantar plate and a torn meniscus in his knee. It was by no means expressly laid out when Kershaw anticipated to return, although there’s now a minimum of a obscure goal.

Gamers could be positioned on the 60-day IL as soon as pitchers and catchers report back to spring coaching, so a number of gamers are already there, together with Dodgers like Gavin Stone and River Ryan. Kershaw might comply with them there however the 60-day depend doesn’t start till Opening Day. IL transactions could be backdated three days, so groups will solely put guys on the 60-day in the event that they don’t anticipate them to be wholesome within the first 57 days of the season.

The Dodgers begin the schedule somewhat bit sooner than most groups, as they and the Cubs are dealing with off within the Tokyo Sequence this 12 months. Two common season video games between these groups will happen on March 18 and 19, whereas the 28 different groups will play their first common season sport March 27.

The replace from Kershaw makes the rotation image rather less crowded within the brief time period. As of proper now, the Dodgers undertaking to have a six-man beginning employees consisting of Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin. They may begin the season with Shohei Ohtani performing because the designated hitter however not pitching. He didn’t pitch in 2024 whereas recovering from Tommy John surgical procedure and likewise required surgical procedure on his non-throwing shoulder within the fall. He’s anticipated to be again on the mound in Could and it appears Kershaw’s timeline is comparable.

It’s theoretically doable the Dodgers could have too many rotation choices at occasions this summer season. As soon as Kershaw and Ohtani are again within the combine, they might have eight viable candidates for six spots. Sasaki and Gonsolin are the one two who could be optioned to the minors.

It appears extremely unlikely Sasaki shall be despatched down at any level, on condition that he’s already thought-about an ace-level expertise. Gonsolin can also be simply 20 days away from 5 years of MLB service time, at which level he would have the appropriate to refuse being optioned.

Nevertheless, there are additionally well being considerations all all through the group, so it appears honest to surprise how usually six or extra of them shall be wholesome at any given time. Could and Gonsolin missed all of 2024 recovering from surgical procedure. Snell solely pitched 104 innings final 12 months and has solely hit 130 twice in his profession. Yamamoto’s first MLB season noticed him spend numerous time on the IL, solely attending to 90 innings. Glasnow set a private greatest final 12 months by attending to 134. Sasaki by no means hit 130 innings in any of his seasons in Japan.

It’s an excessive quality-over-quantity group, so it is going to be fascinating to see if it ever feels really crowded. If vital accidents pile up, the membership additionally has Bobby Miller, Landon Knack, Nick Frasso, Justin Wrobleski and Ben Casparius as optionable guys on the roster who ought to be within the Triple-A rotation.

For Kershaw personally, he shall be wanting tackle a large workload for the primary time shortly. It was his norm to log about 230 innings in a season however he hasn’t achieved that since 2015 and he hasn’t hit 132 since 2019. He did get to 131 2/3 in 2023 however was clearly working with diminished stuff and required shoulder surgical procedure within the offseason. He returned from that process to make seven begins in July and August of final 12 months however then went again on the IL because of the foot points and completed the 12 months with simply 30 innings pitched.

Lacking the primary few weeks of 2025 will stop him from having an enormous workload this 12 months however he might actually go properly past these 30 frames if issues go in accordance with plan. As for what’s past that, it appears the longer term Corridor of Famer isn’t making any choices but. He tells Bob Nightengale of USA Today that he plans to go 12 months to 12 months, versus placing a agency timeline on what number of extra seasons he plans to play in.