Dodgers fans enjoyed the club’s annual FanFest today, and among the festivities were comments from GM Brandon Gomes as well as several players. In addition to providing a handful of injury updates, Gomes discussed the future of longtime franchise face and generational hurler Clayton Kershaw during the event.
As relayed by The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya, Gomes told reporters that the door remains open for Kershaw to return to the only club he’s known throughout his illustrious 18-season professional career even after the Dodgers have spent the offseason completely retooling their rotation mix with the additions of right-handers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow as well as the more recent pickup of veteran southpaw James Paxton. Kershaw has long been expected to choose between either staying with the Dodgers or joining his hometown Rangers on the heels of the first World Series championship in franchise history, with ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez indicating that the expectation is that he’ll eventually sign a two-year deal with one of the two clubs.
“We continue to stay in touch with Clayton,” Gomes said (as relayed by Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register), “and we’ll progress.”
Kershaw, of course, is among the greatest starters in MLB history. The southpaw has ten All Star appearances, three Cy Young awards, and an MVP award on his mantel and is just 66 batters set down away from 3,000 career strikeouts. Dominant as he’s been throughout his entire career, it’s worth noting that the lefty battled through injury in the second half last year. While he managed a sterling 2.23 ERA in that time, he struck out just 22.2% of batters faced in his final eight starts of the regular season while issuing free passes at an uncharacteristic 11.1% clip and never throwing more than 66 pitches during a start. The lefty’s 2023 season came to a close with a disastrous performance in Game 1 of the NLDS where he allowed six runs while recording just one out.
Shortly after the season wrapped up, Kershaw announced that he had undergone surgery on the gleno-humeral ligaments and capsule of his left shoulder. At the time, Kershaw said that he hoped to return “sometime” during the summer of 2024 before indicating back in December that his recovery process was going “really well.” While there have been no updates to the contrary to this point, MLB.com’s Juan Toribio recently offered a more specific timeline for Kershaw’s return to the mound, reporting that the lefty isn’t expected to pitch in the majors until “at least August.” That timeline is on the later end of the summer estimate provided at the time of Kershaw’s surgery, but would still give the lefty ample time to gear up for another crack at the postseason.
Given Kershaw’s lengthy timeline for return, it’s not necessarily surprising that neither side appears to have much urgency in putting pen to paper. Plunkett noted that the Dodgers will be able to put players who expected to miss at least the first two months of the season onto the 60-day IL, thus opening up their 40-man roster spot for the duration of their injury, starting on February 8. With that date less than a week away, it’s hard to imagine Kershaw being officially added to the roster- and thus requiring a corresponding 40-man move- before then, though it’s certainly possible Kershaw’s free agency could extend well beyond that date as well.
Setting aside Kershaw, Gomes made note of one hurler already under contract who’s poised to start the season on the shelf: right-hander Walker Buehler. The GM noted (as relayed by Plunkett) that Buehler’s return to a major league mound for the first time since June of 2022 will be “slow-played”, with both Gomes himself and (per Ardaya) manager Dave Roberts indicating that the righty is likely to start his 2024 campaign late. With that being said, Gomes makes clear that Buehler is not currently a candidate to start the season on the 60-day IL, indicating the club could stand to welcome Buehler back into the rotation mix fairly early into the 2024 campaign.
That the club might look to delay Buehler’s start to the season is hardly a surprise, given comments last month from Gomes noting that the Dodgers would be on a “flexible” innings limit of some sort throughout the year with an eye toward ensuring he’s available for the stretch run and a potential postseason push. It’s understandable that the Dodgers would place a premium on ensuring Buehler is healthy, as the right-hander was among the best starting pitchers in the league from 2018 to 2021, when he posted an excellent 2.82 ERA and 3.16 FIP across 564 innings of work. In the meantime, Buehler’s absence at the start of the season figures to open up a spot in the club’s Opening Day rotation alongside Yamamoto, Glasnow, Paxton, and sophomore righty Bobby Miller for one of the club’s young arms such as Emmet Sheehan or Gavin Stone.
In terms of more positive injury updates, Gomes told reporters (including Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times) that infielder Gavin Lux is fully ready for Spring Training after missing the entire 2023 campaign due to a torn ACL suffered last February, while superstar slugger Shohei Ohtani has begun hitting although he has yet to resume throwing after undergoing elbow surgery back in September. Gonzalez adds that Ohtani himself told reporters that he is “very confident” he’ll be in the lineup on Opening Day, setting the stage for the international superstar to appear in the club’s March 20 game against the Padres in South Korea.
DiGiovanna also notes that Gomes expressed optimism regarding veteran right-hander Blake Treinen, who the GM said is “trending” towards a return after missing the entire 2023 campaign and throwing just five innings during the 2022 season. Treinen sports a sterling 2.49 ERA and 3.12 FIP in 229 appearances dating back to the 2018 season, and figures to be a key piece of the club’s bullpen if he manages to make a healthy return to the mound. That being said, the potential return of Treinen hasn’t stopped the Dodgers from pursuing bullpen additions this winter.
Padres pushed Fanfest to the end of March.
One organization is eager to show fans what they have done, the other almost didn’t hold it at all.
Is May coming back anytime this season?
“mid-season” is what has been said
Look for a May-August romance.
Actually it was dodgerfest not fanfest
Dodgers shoulda traded for Burnes instead of Glasnow & Paxton. They need one guy in their rotation they don’t have to micromanage the entire season. Money turns geniuses into idiots.
jade you must have a lot of money
He’s too healthy for them to go after, they only like guys who make it through no more than half a season.
Dodgers like to lead the league in everything, including days on the IL.
All of Glassnow’s downtime over the years has been attributed to the TJ, and he was slow-played last year so….
Orioles had parts to match the Brewers’ needs, the Dodgers didn’t–specifically a top-flight MLB-ready SS prospect so they can trade Adames and a competitive balance pick to replace the compensatory pick that Burnes would have provided. Not too often the Dodgers don’t have the pieces to make a trade, but that was case here.
Doubt it the bigger need is pitching for the brew crew but Burnes wants to test free agency which he will and Dodgers are not giving up the prospects like that for one year of him. So they just went with plan B instead of A
Wait and hold on. Kershaw is a great pitcher, but one of the greatest all time? Where would he rank? Where is the statistical backing for this? Is it somewhat because he is a BlueBaller? I wonder how much “greatest of all time” stuff would be thrown around if he had been a Royal or Marlin?
In the words of John McEnroe: “YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!!!!!!”
You don’t get out much do you
Kershaw is, without a doubt, one of the greatest starting pitchers ever. Don’t be silly.
For one thing, Kershaw ranks 65th all-time in WAR. Only two other active MLBers rank higher, Justin Verlander (63) and Mike Trout (52). 61 of those 65 players are in the Hall of Fame. There’s plenty of other stats to back up “one of the greatest…”
Are you joking? This is baseball, the statistical backing goes for miles. Please go open Kershaw’s bbref page. It’s no one else’s responsibility to spoon feed you info, especially when it is extremely easily found.
Guy has the best winning % of all TIME higher than Koufax & Pedro
Running: you are kidding right? Three Cy Young awards, one MVP, almost 3000 strikeouts, win/ loss percentage, etc..
Fox471D
And none of these are very strong support as to why he belongs
“sterling” much?
22 months after his last MLB game pitched and Buehler will not be ready to start the season?
The others with MLB experience in the rotation are Glasnow, Paxton, and Miller?
Ouch. Could this finally be the year the Angels have a better starting rotation than the Dodgers?
no
Buehler’s innings will be limited, and they want him to be available at the end of the season. Hence, the late start….
Meaning he is not ready to start the season. If he was, there would be no question of whether he was going on the 60 day IL to start the season or not.
He is coming off his 2nd TJ. You have a better shot at making 20 starts and having an ERA better than league average than he does this season.
Well, you the one that asked the question. To limit his innings, he’ll need a late start to his season and will miss some turns in the rotation. It is what it is….
I didn’t ask any questions about Buehler. I only made statements. Pitchers that are coming off a 2nd TJ have a 1 in 24 chance at making 20 starts or having an ERA under league average. That he is not ready to start the season 20 months after his TJ and 22 months after his last game in the majors doesn’t bode well for him being able to do even that well.
I asked only if this is the season that the Angels rotation is finally better. Chances are with all the injuries and question marks and flat out missing starters that the answer could very well be yes.
The first sentence of your first post clearly ends in a question mark. So….
Outinleft…I think you asked “could this be the year,” the Angels have a better pitching staff. Logically, the answer is yes. It MIGHT be the year that happens.
But, it’s unlikely to be the case.
There was some talk about Buehler possibly being ready for last season’s playoffs. He could very likely start this season in the rotation.
However, then Buehler would not be available in October if he is starting games in March or April.
It’s a luxury the LAD can afford, to avoid the Strasburg-Nats issue circa 10 years ago where one of the team’s best pitchers was unavailable for the playoffs due to post-TJ innings restrictions.
Considering they’re coming off a season where Miller, Sheehan, and Grove combined for 45 starts, and they still won 100 games… no, I wouldn’t bet on the Angels.
Out in left field
Could this be the season that Tyler Anderson outpitches Yoshinobu Yamamoto?
Not too likely
Could this be the season that Tommy Lasorda rises from his grave, and eats Adrian Beltre because he didn’t wear a dodger hat to Cooperstown??? Nom nom nom
Tommy prefers to eat Italian, RIP.
Hoping to see Kershaw pitch as a Dodger again. There’s just nobody else like him.
I think even fans that don’t like the Dodgers are hoping to see him close out his career in a Dodger uniform.
He’s a class act and an all-time great. It would be weird to see him in another uniform but I’ll root for him wherever he goes.
5 years after he decides to hang up his spikes he is a no doubter, 1st ballot for the HOF
We will never see Kershaw in another uniform unless he joins the Salvation Army.
True especially when he forgets how to pitch in the post season.
runningwithnailclippers I can tell you are a really classy individual. keep it up!
Kershaw has been going year to year by choice for how long, and suddenly he’s after a multi year contract? Where do sportswriters come up with this stuff?
He did a 7 year deal, then a 3 year deal, then a 1 year, and another 1 year. So the answer to your first question is 2 years. He has been going year to year for 2 years. Does that mean he won’t sign a 2 year if he feels healthy midway thru the 24 season to give him essentially a 1.5 year deal to possibly actually finish his career? No. But it could mean he is also only comfortable with another 1 year. Maybe he only wants to get to the 3k K mark? Maybe he wants 2 years with Ohtani to actually get that ring and ride out into the sunset and isn’t sure they do it in year 1 with him only playing 1/2 the season, Buehler on a limit, and Ohtani not pitching. Who knows his line of thinking.
The three year deal was actually an extension as I recall but no matter. The point is he’s been taking it year by year as he gets older, and there’s no good reason to think he’s changing his mind as he is older yet, and after the first surgery of his career besides. It isn’t hard to have a general idea of his thinking. Just listen to what he says. From that I have no doubt he wants to finish with the Dodgers and on a high note. He will want to play for as long as he can contribute, and he’s hardly even aware of those round numbers.
Actually he declined an option during his 7 year deal and then signed the 3 year. But not much different.
Either way, I’m a Dodger fan and expect him to finish with them once he decides to call it a career. But won’t be surprised if he decides to finish elsewhere for one reason or another. Hope he signs a 2 year near the ASG with the dodgers for the reasons I explained above. No Ohtani on mound this year, Buehler/May limited… Him as well. Next year they could have an opening day rotation of Ohtani, Yamo, Buehler, May, Kershaw, Gonsolin, and Glasnow… How do they work that out?
This is Buehler’s walk year. Still a crowded rotation, potentially, and something will probably have to give. But the Dodgers will do whatever is necessary to find Kershaw a place in it. The man is huge box office and no way do they let a Dodgers legend run his final lap somewhere else. I keep hearing how this is possible, when it just… isn’t.
He would want a 2 year contract because he won’t be able to pitch much this year, so if a team is going to pay you not to play then they get the extra year when you can.
If he signs later in this season as expected nobody is paying him not to play, they are paying him for the time he can play. Maybe he gets an option for the following season, but I have my doubts about that too, and this comes from what the man has said and done. He will play the game for as long as he can contribute, and coming off the first surgery of his career, that ability going forward is more in doubt than ever. He wants to finish his career his way and on a strong note — and be sure the Dodgers want the same thing, and will play this however Kershaw wants to play it himself.
I would have no problem if Kershaw doesn’t pitch in 2024 but pitch whole season in 2025.
This is probably the least likely scenario.
And he just signed a 1 year plus option so essentially a 2 year deal.
From what we’re hearing, essentially a two-month deal with a player option. Puts him in the position to decide for himself if he’s done or not.
I seriously doubt Kershaw plays for anyone else…
I think Lux has real chance to bust out if they hit him 9th in front of mookie assuming his defense is solid and they give him an honest run at the everyday job
He was on track to get that shot last year. He might be slow-walked this year though because of the injury.
LA has sunk a ton of money into their new acquistions. Not sure why they are not looking at acquiring a proven stud to play SS? And as much as I like Muncy his 3B defense is poor. LA seems to like holding on to their assets, but how many “prized” catching prospects do you need in the organization, for example. .
HS
“how many “prized” catching prospects do you need in the organization,”
Will Smith turned into the starter
Keibert Ruiz was traded for Scherzer and Turner
Diego Cartaya Lost a bit of value last year
Dalton Rushing just arrived on the scene
Dodgers need a catcher after 2025. Might be Smith on a new contract. Might be Cartaya or Rushing.
I don’t see a huge surplus there
have to figure they’re in on Adames
still think he could last longer and contribute more in a closer/late inning role at this stage….i know his routine, but he can adjust.
This Deeds kid continues to be a brutal writer. “Dominant as he’s been throughout his entire career” IS NOT PROPER ENGLISH. “As” at the beginning of the sentence is NOT OPTIONAL.
Get a clue, kid.
It’s the annual “when and where will Chokeshaw sign” thing. Clayton Chokeshaw loves all of this attention, he already knows where he will sign, hes just waiting it out for more attention. Just move on from this horribly choking guy already.
Worst choker in MLB history: Clayton Chokeshaw (“Kershaw”). The Dodgers are playing this perfectly: leave the door open for Chokeshaw so it will be completely on Chokeshaw and not on the Dodgers if he leaves, while also making it clear through their offseasons moves that the Clayton Chokeshaw as face of the franchise and even close to most important player on the roster era with the Dodgers is over. It has been 4 months since his game 1 disgrace- his worst ever performance in a career of being a horrific choker when it really matters. Hes just dragging this out for the attention.
Staying in touch does not mean leaving the door open. If they’re way off on salary, the door is not open.