Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw “didn’t feel great” on Sunday following a 60-pitch simulated game on Saturday, tweets Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times. Kershaw will be shut down until his back pain subsides, manager Dave Roberts told the L.A. media, and his return to the Dodgers’ rotation is “uncertain.” Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register tweets that Kershaw hasn’t picked up a ball since Saturday and will have his back re-examined in the next day or two.
Suffice it to say, that’s not the type of update the Dodgers were hoping to provide following Kershaw’s most recent throwing session. His uncertain timeline further compounds the depleted starting pitching depth for a Dodgers club that was forced to place Hyun-jin Ryu back on the disabled list earlier today with soreness in his left elbow. With Kershaw’s apparent setback and Ryu back on the disabled list, the Dodgers will once again turn to Julio Urias, tweets McCullough, who notes that Bud Norris will make the start for the Dodgers tomorrow with Urias going on Thursday.
The Dodgers, then, will have a rotation consisting of Norris, Urias, Brandon McCarthy, Scott Kazmir and Kenta Maeda for the time being. Names like Brock Stewart, Mike Bolsinger, Carlos Frias and Ross Stripling await as depth at the minor league level, with Brett Anderson and Alex Wood looming as eventual possibilities on the Major League disabled list. However, the Dodgers have also been connected to Rays starters Jake Odorizzi, Matt Moore and Chris Archer in recent weeks (each of whom president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman knows well from his days as GM of the Rays) and has also been linked to Rich Hill this week. While there’s no reason yet to get overly speculative about Kershaw’s injury status, one has to imagine that any further bad news from his upcoming examination would only hasten Friedman and his staff’s efforts to add to the team’s rotation picture.
The fact we are only 5.5 games behind the hated ones and in lead for the Wild Card spot is amazing. The depth we have has proven to be great for us if you think about. But we have to make a major splash at the trade deadline if we really want to contend with all these injuries and now with this Kershaw injury.
As a fellow Dodger fan I’ll say that if I was judging this season purely on “feel” and didn’t know where we actually were in the standings, I would have says we’re probably 4 or 5 games out of the 2nd wild card spot. I honestly can’t believe they’re above .500 with the poor offense and injuries and inconsistencies with pitching.
And Scott Kazmir as the #2 instead of somebody good.
Agreed. With such high expectations, anything less than running away with the division would seem like a failure. Then to think, we’re still in a playoff spot despite everything that’s happened? Kinda cool.
I guess, if it weren’t for the depth in this team, such a horrendous run of injuries would mean a lost season. Yet somehow, there’s still hope.
Doubt it happens, but Roberts should get MotY. Dodgers have basically been the 2014 Ramgers when it comes to injuries.
Blockbuster trade idea!!
-Bruce and deschlafani to the Dodgers
-Alex Verdugo, grant holmes, and another lower lever prospect to the reds
Chew on that.
Definitely no on including Verdugo.
I’d be willing to include Joc more than Verdugo.
I’m not sure on including Holmes, he looks like a sure thing to be a 2/3 starter
For that deal I’d be willing to do Joc Pederson, Brock Stewart, Yusniel Diaz, and another lower level prospect
I’m not selling low on Joc, just yet. He’s still got plenty of upside and will continue to improve with time.
I’d hate to see the Dodgers make another Paul Konerko mistake.
I don’t think it’s necessarily selling low on Joc. He’ll obviously hit for some more homeruns when playing 81 home games in a place like Great American, but Dodgers have Verdugo(CF/RF) and Bellinger(1B/OF) coming that can fill the outfield with a free agent or two if not with Ethier and Thompson
I don’t know if it’s wise to bank on two prospects still in the minors, to replace your starting CF’er who is providing positive value on the major league roster.
Despite the frustrations with Joc – he’s still OPS’ing above .800 and grading out well in the second toughest fielding position on the park.
As a Giants fan you better him back soon. We have 5.5 game lead with Paink Pence and Duffy all coming back soon.
What does being a Giants fan have to do with anything?
Rich Hill & Josh Reddick for Puig, Holmes & Paroubeck
The group in charge of personal better wake up and smell the roses but in all honesty the year could be lost . Let’s get some aggressive people in charge from a log
Run long dodger fan
Maybe y’all should of payed Greinke instead of every Cuban off the ship
Well Greinke hurt too so…
They were going to pay him. Quite handsomely I might add. If you look back to articles from last offseason you’ll see that AZ stepped in at last second with a slightly higher AAV and an extra year and Greinke took the $ and ran.
Well, not quite. Arizona did make the tallest offer in the end, but we can be sure it was brought back to the Dodgers to give them another shot at it.
My gut feeling is that this front office wasn’t serious about contending this year, anyway. For that reason, you won’t see the Dodgers make any blockbuster deals, especially with the cost in prospects of elite starting pitching.
They might add yet another middle-of-the rotation arm and a veteran for the OF for depth purposes, but I’d be shocked if the Dodgers “went for it” at the deadline this year.
Exactly, this is a rebuilding year in all but name, and further I believe “going for it” is not in the vocabulary of this FO. They didn’t do it last year when we were a #3 starter and a setup guy away from being legitimate postseason contenders, so I sure don’t see them doing it now.
I like the Dodgers, but based
On all the high injury pitchers they signed this off season, was anyone expecting a different outcome than this?
Name “all the high injury pitchers they signed this off season.”
Crickets
Yeah signing Jiminy Cricket was a big mistake. He was great until he tore his mandible.
Wow I’m logged in as a random person??? Is MLBTR website having problems?
So who are you now?
Bizarre – I did not post that. Someone else is me! Cool.
Hi – other me.
Creeeeepy.
Super!
No harm no foul..
I think.
Dodgers seem to be very cozy with their prospects. Would you rather have the prospects or the championships? Kershaw can’t carry the team forever and the window is closing. We could’ve had one or two championships when we had Grienke, but just weren’t willing to pay-to-play & get that key piece to put us over the top.
How is the window closing? We’re still in Kershaw’s prime. We’re not at the end of anyone else’s. Unless maybe A-Gon?
The money isn’t drying up.
There were people absolutely screaming to move Seager for an arm last season – glad we didn’t.
Yeah because trading Seager, Urias, and Pederson for Hamels would’ve guaranteed championships. Smh
Complete straw man. No one with a brain wanted to trade them for Hamels.
They absolutely could have got a better setup man than Baez,
The true comps are what KC gave up to rent Cueto. It wasn’t nothing, but it wasn’t anyone of the caliber of Seager, Urias, or Pederson — let alone, all of them.
I’m an SF Giant fan but it seems like they are burnt out!!! Even without Kershaw, the Dodgers seem to be a bit more priductive both at the plate and on the mound.
Yeah, I think NL West is in the bag now. We can’t be complacent, but it’s hard to see anyone else getting the division. #evenyear
You are the third Giant fan to make a vulture comment on this injury post.
Point blank, the FO has whiffed on major acquisitions. I told my buddies this offseason that letting Greinke go at $206MM was the right move but that there should have been no hesitation to get Cueto at $130MM. That was a no-brainer to me. I also thought they should’ve gotten Shields. Dude can’t pitch but boy is he durable and $75MM is cheap these days. Aside from that I thought they should have just plowed through with Aroldis and dealt with the backlash (I know – I’m a sellout) and I was screaming for them to give Miller a 4th year when they were in on him two years ago. I’m not always right but all these moves seemed like easy decisions at the time and they’d seemingly have brought back SO much value. Now that we’re in this mess there’s no way I’d trade Verdugo or Bellinger. Holmes maybe. You can find that value elsewhere. Send Puig packing, maybe Joc if we can get a guy like Lucroy.
The problem is they’re being penny wise but pound foolish. Cueto was a no-brainer at $130MM when choosing to let Greinke walk at $206MM (right call). They were in talks with Miller two years ago but wouldn’t do a 4th year and now look. Prob should have just stuck it out with Chapman too, really. I actually wanted them to get Shields whose durability is worth the money when you consider the patch work of arms we have. Now that we’re in this mess I think we should wait it out. No letting go of DeLeon, Urias, Bellinger or Vedugo in my mind. Too much potential when we are not firing on all cylinders to begin with. Let Puig go, trade Joc if it means getting a guy like Lucroy and I’d be okay with Holmes and Montas, too.
We are now being prepared for the loss of Kershaw for the rest of the season. Roberts said yesterday that he might need back surgery. He clarified that he wasn’t speaking medically, only logically, due to the persistence of his lower back pain.
Hi MLBTR Fam, love this site. It’s been great keeping up with the latest Dodgers rumor mill. Most comments are spot on, whether it be about the Questionable FO, current Dodgers to be traded or guys to trade for. I’m wondering with all the injuries, pitchers and position players, is this season a lost cause? Is standing pat with the current roster the way to go. See what happens in the wild card?