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Clayton Kershaw To Begin Rehab Assignment

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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

Rockies Place Kris Bryant On Injured List

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The Rockies announced that they have placed Kris Bryant on the 10-day injured list due to lumbar degenerative disc disease. Catcher Braxton Fulford had his contract selected to take Bryant’s place on the roster. Right-hander Jeff Criswell was transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot for Fulford. Criswell had Tommy John surgery last month and will miss the entire season. Thomas Harding of MLB.com reported the Bryant and Fulford moves prior to the official announcement.

Injuries have been the defining feature of Bryant’s time in Colorado. He is now in his fourth season as a member of the Rockies but hasn’t surpassed 80 games in any of those campaigns. His first season in the mountains, 2022, he hit well but only got into 42 contests. Since then, he has not only been frequently sidelined but also ineffective when in the lineup. He has a .222/.307/.335 batting line over the 2023-25 seasons and is out to a brutal .154/.195/.205 start so far in 2025.

His injury absences have been due to various ailments, including a heel bruise, finger fracture and rib contusion, but back problems have been an ongoing feature as well. In 2022, he spent over a month on the IL due to a lower back strain. A back strain also kept him out of action for almost two months at the end of the 2024 campaign.

Whether those various back problems are all interconnected or not is unknown. The club also hasn’t provided much information on this current diagnosis or what they expect in terms of prognosis. More information will surely emerge tonight or in the coming days.

Either way, it just further compounds the point that Bryant has been an awful investment for the club. Prior to coming to Colorado, he had done it all. He was a Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, All-Star and World Series champion. He had a .278/.376/.504 batting line through 2021. He hit free agency and landed a seven-year, $182MM deal with the Rockies.

Even at the time, it was a bit of a head-scratcher. The Rockies had just wrapped up their third straight losing season and near-term contention didn’t seem highly likely. Some were calling for a rebuild at that time, but they went in another direction by making this big investment. As mentioned, it hasn’t worked out, and the club hasn’t gotten any better. They lost 94 games in 2022 and got to triple digits in each of the past two seasons. They are the worst team in baseball so far this season with a 3-12 record.

Bryant had largely been serving as the designated hitter, so the club will have some options now in who they give those at-bats to. The fact that they have called up a catcher perhaps indicates that Hunter Goodman might move out from behind the plate more often. He has been splitting the catching duties with Jacob Stallings but now perhaps could take the DH slot or move to the outfield, where he has some experience.

Fulford, 26, was a sixth-round pick of the Rockies in 2021. Back in January, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs gave him an honorable mention on his list of the top prospects in the system, noting that he has poor defense and contact hitting but good power. In his 1,219 minor league plate appearances, he has hit .265/.375/.455 with 40 home runs. He struck out at a 25.1% clip last year and is at 27.3% so far this year. Given his bat-first tendencies, perhaps Goodman will stay in the catching mix while Fulford takes some DH time.

Photo courtesy of Isaiah J. Downing, Imagn Images

NL Central Notes: Horwitz, Triolo, Moll, Díaz

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Infielder Spencer Horwitz was one of the key offseason pickups of the Pirates but they haven’t gotten anything out of him yet. He underwent wrist surgery in February, a procedure which came with a return timeline of six to eight weeks.

Tomorrow, it will be nine weeks since that timeline was provided and Horwitz is still on the injured list. He also hasn’t started a rehab assignment. There is at least some positive momentum, however, as Horwitz took batting practice at PNC Park today with his teammates. Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review relayed some video of Horwitz taking his hacks.

That’s somewhat encouraging but Horwitz is probably still not close to joining the big league club. He missed all of spring training and will surely need a few weeks of game action once he does start a rehab assignment. He has a .264/.355/.428 career batting line, which would be a tremendous boost to the Pittsburgh lineup. The team is hitting .184/.273/.290 as a whole so far this year, leading to a league-worst 61 wRC+.

Horwitz was supposed to be the club’s regular first baseman but most of the playing time at that spot has gone to catcher Endy Rodríguez, who is hitting .178/.260/.244. Whenever Horwitz can come off the IL, that should allow Rodriguez to move his focus back to catching, where his defense is considered strong.

Some more notes from around the division…

  • Sticking with the Pirates, infielder Jared Triolo is going to start a rehab assignment, per Gorman. He was serving a utility role until he landed on the IL with a lower back injury last week. Once he’s healthy, he can resume bouncing around to multiple positions, though he may not help much on offense. He has hit just .236/.319/.333 in his big league career, which includes a rough .059/.111/.059 showing in six games to start the 2025 season. Tsung-Che Cheng was brought up when Triolo hit the IL but he still hasn’t reached based in his first seven plate appearances. Enmanuel Valdéz is also doing some utility work but is hitting .148/.207/.296 on the season.
  • Turning to the Reds, they put left-hander Sam Moll on the 15-day injured list with a left shoulder impingement today, even though they’re not playing. The move was backdated by three days, the maximum allowed, to April 11. That perhaps suggests they don’t expect a lengthy absence, as they are making the move today so that he can return one day earlier than if they had waited until tomorrow. No corresponding move was announced but Mark Sheldon of MLB.com suggests it will likely be right-hander Alexis Díaz being reinstated from the IL. Díaz started the season on the IL with a left hamstring strain. He recently started a rehab assignment and already has five minor league appearances in the books. Díaz has served as the Reds’ closer for much of the past three years but his strikeout rate has been declining, from 32.5% in 2022 to 30.1% in 2023 and just 22.7% last year. Emilio Pagán has four saves so far this year and could be bumped into a setup role if Díaz is given the closing duties again.

Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images

Padres Place Brandon Lockridge On IL Due To Hamstring Strain

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The Padres announced that center fielder Brandon Lockridge has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a left hamstring strain. Infielder/outfielder Connor Joe has been recalled to take his spot on the active roster.

Lockridge, 28, isn’t a big star. He has just 25 big league games to his name and a tepid line of .186/.239/.302 in those. However, the injury is a significant one for the Padres since this now means their starting and backup center fielders are both on the IL at the same time.

Jackson Merrill is, of course, the club’s primary option up the middle. He finished second in National League Rookie of the Year voting last year and the club made a strong commitment to him by signing him to a nine-year, $135MM extension a couple of weeks ago.

However, Merrill landed on the IL due to a right hamstring strain just a few days after inking that deal. That meant that Lockridge suddenly became the club’s everyday center fielder. With Lockridge now out of action due to his own hammy strain, the club will have to get a bit creative.

Tyler Wade seems to be Plan A. He entered yesterday’s game in place of Lockridge and is starting tonight’s contest out there as well. He’s a multi-positional defensive specialist but center field is one spot where he doesn’t have a ton of experience. He has 52 2/3 innings in center, compared to hundreds in the outfield corners and the infield spots to the left of first base. Even if he can handle the position defensively, he isn’t likely to provide much with the bat. He has 865 major league plate appearances with a .217/.291/.289 line.

Per Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Joe had been playing some center field for Triple-A El Paso due to an injury suffered by Forrest Wall. Perhaps that makes him part of Plan B, though he has no major league experience at the position.

There are some speculative fits on the roster. Jason Heyward has lots of center field experience overall but not so much in recent years and he’s now 35 years old. Fernando Tatis Jr. also has 86 innings in center and could move over from right, though that doesn’t seem to be the plan. He tells Annie Heilbrunn of the San Diego Union-Tribune that he is staying in right, as far as he knows.

It will all be temporary, as Merrill will solidify the spot when he returns, but it will make for an interesting challenge in the meantime. The Padres are baseball’s best team at the moment, out to a 13-3 start, and they will naturally try to do whatever they can to keep that momentum going.

Photo courtesy of Denis Poroy, Imagn Images

Poll: Should The Nationals Have Been More Aggressive This Winter?

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The Nationals lost 91 games in 2024 but entered this winter with an arrow that was seemingly pointed upwards. Key young players like CJ Abrams and MacKenzie Gore took steps forward, while others like James Wood and Dylan Crews made their big league debuts. Between those positive signs for the future and the onerous Patrick Corbin contract finally coming off the club’s books, it was widely speculated around baseball that the Nationals could be a player in the upper echelons of free agency for the first time since their rebuild began in 2021. They instead opted for a much more reserved approach in free agency.

Fan speculation that the club could attempt to enter the Juan Soto bidding to pair their former superstar with the package of youngsters they acquired for him back in 2022 was always farfetched, but the club’s passive winter went beyond not taking a swing at free agency’s top dog. Rather than pursue a big bat at first base like Pete Alonso, GM Mike Rizzo and his front office swung a trade for Nathaniel Lowe and signed Josh Bell. Alex Bregman would’ve made plenty of sense as an addition at third base, but the club opted to take low-cost fliers on Paul DeJong and Amed Rosario instead.

That measured approach to upgrading the lineup carried over to the pitching staff as well. The Nats didn’t appear interested in a mid-rotation veteran like Nick Pivetta or a potential ace like Jack Flaherty who could lead the pitching staff, even when both lingered on the market into February. They settled on depth options like Michael Soroka and Shinnosuke Ogasawara behind their stable of young arms. Even pricey one-year relief arms like Kenley Jansen and Jose Leclerc signed by other clubs looking to take a step forward toward contention were eschewed in favor of non-tendering and then re-signing Kyle Finnegan.

None of those depth moves were necessarily bad on paper, and some of them have worked out so far. Finnegan has looked good in his return to the club’s closer role to this point. It’s hard to argue with Lowe’s .250/.339/.500 slash line as a massive upgrade over what Joey Meneses and Joey Gallo offered D.C. last year. Rosario has looked solid in the utility role he found some success in with the Rays last year. Despite those early successes, the club’s mostly passive offseason frustrated some fans in the nation’s capital. The Nats are just 6-9 to this point in the year and stand little hope of overcoming titanic teams like the Mets and Phillies as presently constructed.

Of course, that well may have been true even if the team had splurged on higher-profile free agents. The Phillies have been one of the NL’s biggest juggernauts for years now and show little sign of slowing down. The Mets added Soto to a team that already made the NLCS. Even with a shocking 4-11 start in Atlanta opening the door to contention a bit more for the Nationals, they’d have a steep hill to climb to get back to the postseason this year. Club owner Mark Lerner suggested to Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post back in February that the gap between where the Nationals stood entering the winter and the league’s playoff-caliber clubs was too big to justify a significant outlay.

“When Mike calls me in and says, ‘We really need to think about it,’ for next winter, we’ll talk about it,” Lerner told Svrluga. “Right now, he doesn’t think — and I agree with him: There’s no point in getting a superstar and paying him hundreds of millions of dollars to win two or three more games.”

Lerner went on to highlight the club’s decision to sign Jayson Werth to a seven-year, $126MM deal prior to the 2011 season, suggesting that they signed Werth when the club was “right on the cusp” of finding success. That comparison is a somewhat questionable one, however. The 2010 Nationals actually posted a worse record than the 2024 club, losing 93 games, and the Nats finished with a lackluster 80-81 record in Werth’s first year in D.C. before taking off in 2012 thanks in part to the arrival of Bryce Harper.

By contrast, players like Wood, Gore and Abrams are already in place with the club and finding success in the majors. Slow starts this year for Crews and Luis Garcia Jr. highlight the inconsistencies that come with a team built around young talent, but proven veterans would help to paper over those struggles and create a more well-balanced roster. Perhaps that wouldn’t be enough to get the Nationals back to the postseason this year, but a record better than the one the team produced back in 2011 would’ve been within reach. A win total in the low-to-mid 80s can even be enough to squeak into the playoffs in the era of 12 playoff teams, as demonstrated by clubs like the Marlins, Royals, and Tigers in recent years.

What do MLBTR readers think about the Nationals’ decision to hold off on ramping spending back up? Should they have moved more aggressively to exit their rebuilding phase this winter, or were they wise to wait for their young players to develop more before committing to a win-now approach? Have your say in the poll below:

Front Office Subscriber Chat Transcript

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MLBTR's Steve Adams hosted a chat today at 2pm CT, exclusively for Trade Rumors Front Office subscribers.

 

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Orioles Claim Scott Blewett

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The Orioles announced Monday that they’ve claimed right-handed reliever Scott Blewett off waivers from the Twins, who’d designated him for assignment over the weekend. In a corresponding move, Baltimore designated left-hander Luis Gonzalez for assignment. Blewett is out of minor league options, so he’ll have to be plugged right into manager Brandon Hyde’s bullpen.

Blewett, 29, pitched 4 2/3 innings with the Twins before being designated for assignment. He held opponents to a run on four hits and no walks (but one hit batter) with five strikeouts. He also pitched 20 1/3 innings with Minnesota last year, logging a 1.77 ERA but with shakier strikeout and walk rates of 21.4% and 9.2%, respectively, both of which are worse than league average.

Those two brief stints in Minnesota were the most recent big league work for Blewett since a similarly short look with the Royals in 2020-21. In all, he’s pitched 33 innings in the majors and has a tidy 2.18 ERA to show for it, albeit with a 22% strikeout rate and 9.9% walk rate. Even while keeping runs off the board, Blewett has been hit fairly hard; the right-hander has surrendered an average exit velocity of 92.6 mph in the majors and seen nearly half (47.9%) of his opponents’ batted balls travel at 95 mph or more.

Blewett pitched well for the Twins’ Triple-A club in 2024, logging a 3.79 ERA in 54 2/3 innings. That’s the most success he’s had in the upper minors, however. The big 6’6″ righty has pitched in parts of five Triple-A seasons between the Royals, White Sox and Twins systems but been roughed up for a 6.93 ERA in 219 1/3 innings there. In addition to those stints, Blewett had a half-season run with the Braves’ Double-A club in 2023 and also pitched for the Uni-President Lions of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League that year, recording a 3.95 ERA in 41 innings overseas.

Gonzalez, 33, hasn’t pitched in a Triple-A game since April 8. The Orioles placed him on the minor league injured list on April 11 but did not publicly disclose the exact nature of his ailment. It’s not currently clear how long he’ll be sidelined. However, injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers, meaning Gonzalez is all but certain to end up being placed on release waivers. The O’s can renegotiate a minor league deal with him at that point if they wish, but he’ll have the chance to talk to the league’s other 29 clubs in that scenario.

Baltimore selected Gonzalez to the 40-man roster last November rather than risk losing him in the Rule 5 Draft. He’s a true journeyman — a former Phillies signee who has also spent time in the Giants’ system in addition to pitching in Japan, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and even Italy’s top league. Gonzalez spent the 2024 season with the O’s after signing a minor league deal in the 2023-24 offseason. He pitched 60 innings out of the bullpen in Triple-A Norfolk, working to a pedestrian 4.50 earned run average but showing a far more interesting 28.9% strikeout rate against a similarly intriguing 4.9% walk rate.

Gonzalez can be placed on release waivers or traded at any point in the next five days.

Angels Outright Jack Dashwood

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The Angels announced Monday that left-hander Jack Dashwood went unclaimed on waivers following his recent DFA. He’s been assigned outright to Triple-A Salt Lake and will remain in the organization as a depth arm.

Dashwood, 27, pitched just 10 innings in Double-A last year due to injury but followed with another 10 terrific innings in the Arizona Fall League. He posted a gargantuan 33-to-3 K/BB ratio in that time and held opponents to just seven runs. The 6’6″ southpaw turned enough heads in the organization that the Angels opted to add him to the 40-man roster in November, protecting him from December’s Rule 5 Draft.

The 2025 season has gotten out to a nightmarish start for Dashwood, though. The 6’6″ lefty has been torched for 12 runs across four appearances in Triple-A, totaling just two innings overall. Dashwood pitched a spotless inning with two strikeouts to start his season, and he’s since been tagged for five, four and three runs in subsequent appearances, yielding a homer in each. He’s faced 20 hitters so far this year and allowed 11 hits and three walks.

Now that he’s cleared waivers, Dashwood will head back to Salt Lake and try to iron out the early kinks. The Halos already have three lefties in the big league bullpen — Brock Burke, Reid Detmers and Rule 5 pick Garrett McDaniels — but Dashwood could still put himself back on the map if he can regain his Double-A/Arizona Fall League form in the coming months.

Latest On Red Sox’ Catching Depth

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Having lost Connor Wong to a broken finger, the Red Sox quickly signed veteran Yasmani Grandal to a minor league deal that includes an opt-out just over two weeks into the contract (May 1). They could continue to explore further options behind the plate in the days ahead, writes MassLive’s Chris Cotillo.

At present, the Sox are going with rookie Carlos Narvaez and DFA pickup Blake Sabol behind the plate. Narvaez is hitting .212/.297/.303 in 37 plate appearances. Sabol is 0-for-6 since his recall and is a career .239/.308/.386 hitter in the majors. Narvaez has caught just one of eight runners who’ve attempted to steal against him. Sabol, who has a career 11.7% caught-stealing rate, is 0-for-5 in that regard through his first dozen innings behind the plate with the Sox. Wong has been right in line with league average dating back to 2023 (21.1%). Seby Zavala, the organization’s most experienced option beyond the newly signed Grandal, is hitting .129/.156/.194 through 32 Triple-A plate appearances (2-for-31, 15 strikeouts).

When it comes to free agency, there’s not much in the way of unsigned catchers. Grandal was one of very few unsigned players of note. Fellow veteran Yan Gomes also went unsigned this offseason, though it’s not clear he’s even looking to play after being released by the Cubs last June. He didn’t sign with another team for the remainder of the 2024 campaign, either.

Catchers Curt Casali and Chadwick Tromp were both released by the Braves over the past month. Neither has signed with a new team, and both struggled this spring. Casali, a veteran of 11 big league seasons, hasn’t hit much since 2022 and was hitless in 15 spring plate appearances. Tromp hit .147/.171/.176 in 35 spring plate appearances and was hitless in six regular season plate appearances. He has a limited big league track record but did go 5-for-17 in catching base thieves last year (29.4%). Kyle McCann, who hit .236/.318/.371 for the A’s in 157 plate appearances last year, was also released last month and remains unsigned.

Given that lack of free agent options, it’s not a surprise that Cotillo suggests the trade market as an option. Many veterans have upward mobility clauses in their minor league contracts with current teams. Others will have opt-out dates late this month or early next — similar to Grandal — and could be flipped for cash if they’re planning to opt out anyhow. Among the veteran depth options playing with other organizations’ Triple-A affiliates right now are Tucker Barnhart (Rangers), Andrew Knizner (Nationals), Luke Maile (Royals), James McCann (Braves) and Austin Nola (Rockies), just to name a few.

The Red Sox still haven’t provided an exact timetable on Wong’s return from injury. The 28-year-old batted .280/.333/.425 last year in what has been his lone productive season at the MLB level to date. He followed up that breakout showing with a 2-for-23 start to the 2025 season prior to sustaining that fractured finger.

If Wong has any setbacks or struggles with the bat upon returning from a hand injury of some note, it stands to reason that catching help could be a target for Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow this summer. Johanfran Garcia is the only catcher generally considered among the top 30 prospects in Boston’s system after trading Kyle Teel in the Garrett Crochet swap, and Garcia was limited to 14 games in A-ball last year after requiring season-ending knee surgery.

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