Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw shut down indefinitely due to unknown arm issue
Spring training is officially underway, and it didn’t take long for us to get the first gut-punch injury report of the year: Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw has been shut down indefinitely.
That’s bad news every day of the week, but what’s even worse is that the Dodgers don’t seem to know what’s wrong. Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times spoke to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who said that Kershaw is dealing with an “arm kind of thing,” and speculated that it could possibly be an issue known as “dead arm.” He revealed that Kershaw “didn’t feel right” after a bullpen session on Thursday.
Roberts isn’t worried about his ace, though. He’d rather listen to Kershaw, who knows his body better than anyone, and exercise an abundance of caution. From the Los Angeles Times:
“When he says he doesn’t feel right, you’re looking at the calendar, just to push things back is prudent and that’s what we’re doing right now,” said Roberts, who maintained he isn’t alarmed by the development. “So to say when he’s going to throw his next ‘pen, I can’t say right now. And we’re sort of leaving that to him and the trainers to figure out when that is. But right now, to just kind of step away, give him a couple days, I think that’s what we want to do.”
Kershaw, 30, has missed time due to injury for each of the last three seasons, mostly related to his back. In 2018 he was out for nearly the entire month of May for a biceps issue, only to feel his back tighten up in his first start off the injured list. That injury returned took him out of commission for nearly another month.
Despite two trips to the injured list in 2018, Kershaw still pitched 161.1 innings with a 2.73 ERA over 26 starts. With numbers like that, it’s not hard to see why the Dodgers signed him to a three-year, $93 million contract extension in November.
Roberts said there’s no timetable for Kershaw’s return, and they’ll take things day-to-day. Kershaw will continue to work out, but won’t do any throwing. He was named the Dodgers’ opening day starter last week, and that hasn’t changed — for now, at least. Depending on how Kershaw feels over the next week or two, Roberts may need to make an adjustment.
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