Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw will start a rehab assignment on Wednesday. Manager Dave Roberts recently passed the news along to reporters, including Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times. That will kick off a 30-day rehab window, which will take him the majority of the way to May 17, when he’s eligible to come off the 60-day injured list.
Kershaw, 37, was once a workhorse but his health has become more of a recurring issue in recent seasons. He hasn’t thrown more than 132 innings in a season since 2019. He only got to 30 frames last year. He started the 2024 season on the injured list recovering from shoulder surgery. He eventually made it back to the mound but his season was finished by surgeries on his toe and knee, to repair a ruptured plantar plate and a torn meniscus.
He was moved to the 60-day IL pretty quickly in 2025 but the timeline is a little bit different for him due to the Dodgers’ schedule. They started their regular season in the middle of March with the Tokyo Series and Kershaw landed on the IL at that time. A player starting the season on the 60-day IL would normally be out until late May but that early start gives Kershaw a chance to come back a bit quicker.
What to expect from Kershaw at this point is anyone’s guess. While he averaged around 95 miles per hour on his fastball at his peak, he’s been down closer to 90 mph in recent seasons. He has still managed to put up some decent numbers despite that, with a 2.46 ERA in 2023. Though he was clearly walking a tightrope and then got pummeled by the Diamondbacks in the playoffs. He had a 4.50 ERA in his limited work last year. With more surgical work on his track record, will that push those trends even further, or could he perhaps turn back the clock a bit with some health?
Whenever Kershaw does return, it’s possible the Dodgers will have to make some tough decisions about their rotation. Currently, they have Tyler Glasnow, Roki Sasaki, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dustin May and Landon Knack in there. Blake Snell recently landed on the IL with some shoulder inflammation but it appears to be a fairly minor issue and he might be back soon. Tony Gonsolin is also on the IL due to back tightness but he is already rehabbing, having thrown 3 1/3 innings in his most recent outing. Then there’s Shohei Ohtani, who is working as the club’s designated hitter but also throwing bullpens on the side as he tries to return to the mound.
As Kershaw, Snell, Gonsolin and Ohtani get back into the mix, the squeeze might be on. Everyone in the group has some kind of health or workload concern, so it would be foolish to expect all of them to be healthy at the same time. Also, Yamamoto and Sasaki are being kept on weekly schedules, as is more common in Japan. That could leave the club some wiggle room to run a six-man rotation, depending on the off-days in the schedule, but someone also might get bumped into a long relief role. Knack, Sasaki and Gonsolin are the only pitchers mentioned here with options, though Gonsolin will hit five years of service time this week, at which point he would have to consent to any optional assignment.
Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images
its a regular arms race
Or… an irregular arms race.
If the cubs are looking for some rotation help they need to start discussions with the dodgers so when everyone on the DL comes back they can work a deal.
Now there’s a blast from the past.
Who are the Cubs going to trade for a starter? Owen Cassie and Kevin Alcantara?
Kershaw has ten and five rights and has expressed his desire to pitch for no one other than the los doyers = he will not approve a trade
Two-part problem here is part 1, the Cubs have nothing to trade. And, part 2, the Dodgers are going to cycle these guys back-and-forth on the IL throughout the season making it unlikely they trade anyone
The Cubs have nothing to trade? That’s hilarious. Multiple top 100 prospects
I’m expecting a Cy Young season to end his career. Retiring as the GOAT.
He’s the one Dodger that I wouldn’t be upset if that happened.
Reading this made my brain hurt.
Anyway, while it might be “foolish” to expect everyone to be healthy at the same time, the Dodgers nevertheless have to be that fool and consider their moves if it happens.
Yamamoto/Glasnow/Snell/Kershaw if healthy are in the rotation. They’ll go 6 man with Ohtani when he’s ready. Leaving Sasaki/May/Gonsolin to fight out the last spot. Considering Sasaki is only averaging about 3.1 innings per start maybe the do some piggybacking with him and May/Gonsolin
I don’t think the Dodgers can not start May with the way he’s pitching.
I agree with Mets Era that May is currently a lock for the rotation. Sasaki also. He’s just getting started and should pitch deeper into games as the season progresses. Unless his development stalls for some reason, he and the team will gain nothing from him being optioned. So within a month, they will very possibly have seven starters vying for the six openings. And it isn’t foolish for them to be planning now for what might have to happen then.
Rasmussan had a good start for the Rays the other day, and Joe Boyle threw five scoreless, the Rays pitching is almost as deep and as good as the Dodgers if you count McClanahan who has a nerve issue and is on the IR. Kameron Misner has had what I would call the most impressive start of any rookie. Eloy Jimenez in the minors could join the team, get Josh Lowe back, Carson Williams makes the jump. The Rays are looking like contenders early.
what does that have to do with Kershaw?
Watching the Rays tonight you’d never know they were at the bottom of the league in scoring. They tattooed everything Houck threw at them…
I was looking at rotational depth, Dodgers have been the most talked about, Rays may be as good and as deep in the rotation. That was my primary point as it related to the discussion around the Dodgers having surplus pitching available for trade. The discussion points related to the Rays team otherwise were mostly about how they have been underrated in comparison and that they are currently competitive with or without trading a starter, which they could easily do and still have one of the better rotations in the league.
If you’re going to have injury prone starters, it doesn’t hurt to have 9 quality starters.
Kersh needs to work on gettin his Dad bod in shape. Lose some lbs. Sure would help his legs and feet to not have to carry so much….
If the Dodgers continue batting .225 as a team, with a .304 OBP, in order to move along in the playoffs, it might not matter how many healthy starters are available.
nobody expects that to continue, just like nobody expects the Cardinals to have a .350 OBP as a team.
They’ve got one position player under 30 with more than three plate appearances in 2025.
Is this the year when age finally catches up with the (12 and 6) Dodgers?
He’ll pitch 10 games and be done for the year
But somehow manage a 2.15 ERA in those 10 games
Hard to believe Kershaw ‘just’ turned 37. Feels like he should be well into his 40s like Verlander.
And done at 29 as a superstar.
I mean hey, most pitchers would kill to have the sort of level of production post-superstar Kershaw has. He still has a 2.82 ERA and 145 ERA+. Post-peak Kershaw still has a better ERA and ERA+ than Roger Clemens has for his career.
It seems like Kershaw has been around forever because he came up at the ridiculously young age of 20. He has pushed himself through a whole lot of hurt to become one of the best pitchers of our generation and an automatic HoF inductee. All this dissing of him is so sad. I can only conclude that it isn’t coming from real baseball fans.
There’s a real chance we see a modified piggyback system or a creative bullpen role for someone like Knack or Gonsolin.
at 87-88mph, the comeback might be short-lived