Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw had already made one rehab start and was scheduled to make another Tuesday, but instead he’s been shut down due to “lingering soreness,” according to the OC Register. He won’t throw again for at least a week before trying to ramp back up. The good news is Kershaw has had an MRI and didn’t show any “new incidents.”
“This is part of the process as far as anyone that goes through rehab, that goes through a surgery, and is on his way back,” manager Dave Roberts said, via the OC Register. “It’s not surprising. It’s not perfect, but it’s not surprising in the fact that there is a little bit of a regression in the throwing process.”
Kershaw had surgery on his left shoulder last November to repair the glenohumeral ligaments and capsule. It’s a long road to recovery with plenty of possible setbacks from such a procedure, which is why Roberts made the comments he did. Given that Kershaw is 36 years old with almost 3,000 career innings pitched between the regular season and playoffs, it’s even less surprising that there would be a setback here in his rehab.
In his first rehab outing, Kershaw went three innings and threw 36 pitches. He’d need to get to the point where he’s finishing at least five innings and probably is in the range of 75 pitches before the Dodgers would think about activating him to the big-league roster. All along, the belief has been that he’d return sometime in August and there’s no reason to think a one-week shutdown changes anything on that front.
The Dodgers are dealing with plenty of pitching injuries. Walker Buehler started the season on the injured list and Bobby Miller had a lengthy stint on it. Kershaw, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin have been on the IL all year and Yoshinobu Yamamoto is now on it.
Still, the Dodgers enter Monday 48-31, which is good for an 8.5-game lead in the NL West.
