It’s been a fait accompli for weeks now, but Dodgers skipper Dave Roberts made it official today that Clayton Kershaw will open the season on the injured list (link via Jorge Castillo of the L.A. Times). Kershaw has been slowed by inflammation in his left shoulder for much of the spring and has not been pitching in Cactus League games recently. He’ll face live hitters tomorrow, per Castillo. There’s no indication at present that Kershaw will miss a substantial portion of the upcoming season. Castillo, in fact, notes that Kershaw won’t pitch in the upcoming series of exhibition games against the Angels, beginning on Sunday, because withholding him will allow the Dodgers to back-date his IL placement by the maximum three days (thus creating the possibility of an earlier return). It’s been a month since Kershaw has thrown in a game setting, though, so there’s still some work to be done in terms of getting him back up to speed.
A few more updates on some notable injury situations…
- Both Jeremy Jeffress and Jimmy Nelson will open the season on the injured list, Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns confirmed today (Twitter links, with video, via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt). The concern regarding each player appears to be relatively mild, as Stearns even emphasized that Jeffress isn’t so much hurt as he is dealing with weakness in his shoulder while trying to build up strength. Stearns declined to place a definitive timeline on either pitcher but indicated that it’s plausible that Jeffress could return to the team before the end of April. Nelson, meanwhile, will jump right into rehab games for Triple-A San Antonio to open the season, and he’ll be further evaluated after his first couple of starts.
- Cubs fans braced for bad news when trainers visited Yu Darvish on the mound today and the righty exited the game, however the ailment in question proved to be minor. The Cubs announced that Darvish exited the game with a blister, and Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune tweets that the right-hander doesn’t even expect to miss a start. Darvish cut the blister open while throwing a breaking ball on what proved to be his final pitch of the afternoon.
- Phillies right-hander Tommy Hunter and outfield hopeful Roman Quinn are expected to open the 2019 season on the injured list, MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki writes. Hunter has been slowed by a flexor strain this spring, while Quinn is sidelined for now due to an oblique strain. Quinn’s placement on the IL buys the Phillies a little bit of time in determining how to sort out their outfield picture. With Bryce Harper and Andrew McCutchen locked into the corners, the Phillies have four remaining outfielders — Odubel Herrera, Nick Williams, Aaron Altherr and Quinn — with minimal at-bats to go around. That situation is complicated further by the fact that Altherr and Quinn are both out of minor league options. Something will have to give eventually, but until Quinn is up to full strength, the Phillies can continue to keep him and Altherr both in the organization.
At least Kershaw didn’t hit the dl,just the injured list.
It’s the same thing. Just renamed to be politically correct and offend anyone….. seriously!
Hook. Line. Sinker.
LOL
Um… What?
Um…Citizen was being facetious.
This
It wasn’t changed to “not offend anyone”, it was changed because small things like that can severely impact a young child. If a kid is disabled, and the whole point of the disabled list is you can’t do anything, what does that subconsciously tell the kid?
So DG, you’re saying said child would, idk, be offended subconsciously then?
BG32………
“The league will make the change out of concern that the term “disabled” for injured players falsely conflates disabilities with injuries and an inability to participate in sports. Deputy commissioner Dan Halem said the change was made at the suggestion of advocacy groups for the disabled, including the Link 20 Network.”
“Jeff Pfeifer, MLB’s senior director of league economics and operations, notified clubs of the name change in a memo written in December.”
“In recent years, the commissioner has received several inquiries regarding the name of the ‘Disabled List,'” Pfeifer wrote. “The principal concern is that using the term ‘disabled’ for players who are injured supports the misconception that people with disabilities are injured and therefore are not able to participate or compete in sports. As a result, Major League Baseball has agreed to change the name ‘Disabled List’ to be the ‘Injured List’ at both the major and minor league levels.”
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25947020/major-league-baseball-rename-disabled-list-injured-list
99% sure he was joking around there.
For now, unless we want to hold him back and use other pitching to start the session
As minor as Darvish’s blister is thought to be, I’d imagine the Cubs are still awfully concerned. I know I don’t trust reports on Darvish’s minor injuries at this point.
Agreed. A “blister” probably means his blew out his arm.
Agree with your underlying point on Darvish and his injuries. However Yu posted a picture of the blister on his social media sites. In this case it really is just a blister.
“Just a blister” has seen pitchers miss multiple starts before if it doesn’t heal as quickly as a pitcher hopes. There have also been pitchers who just kept developing blisters over and over.
I’m a fan of Darvish and I advocated the Twins trading for him this offseason since the Cub’s asking price would have been low, but Darvish is definitely out of wiggle room on injuries right now.
‘just a blister’ has also proven to be nothing but a minor inconvenience that hasn’t meant any missed time. If Darvish was the kind of pitcher who had a chronic problem with such things, it would be known by this point in his career.
There is no such thing as ‘wiggle room’ when it comes to injuries. Assuming somebody has a serious problem just because he’s had a completely different and unrelated problem is just irrational.
I’d rather see Kershaw healthy. Hes a good guy, and the dodgers wouldn’t have any excuses
What excuse do the Gnats have for being horrible? I’ll wait here.
FaIt AcCoMpLi
God really hasn’t been blessing Clayton Kershaw very much when it comes to staying healthy.
He works in mysterious ways?
Or he’s just drinking the Padre kool-aid too?
Tigers need to trade for Quinn.
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