Clayton Kershaw has yet to pitch for the Los Angeles Dodgers this season after he underwent left shoulder surgery last November and continues with the prolonged recovery process.
Things were going well for Kershaw as he progressed to making a rehab start with the Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, during which he completed three innings. Kershaw came out of it feeling good, and that remained true the next day.
However, he was ultimately forced to pause the rehab before a scheduled start for Triple-A Oklahoma City due to lingering shoulder soreness. Kershaw was totally shut down from throwing for one week, and his status was up in the air.
A little over one week later, Kershaw resumed throwing, which included a flat ground session at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday, and all things are back on track.
“Clayton is going to throw a ‘pen [Thursday] and he looks really good,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I would argue he looks better than he did when he was making his way back a few weeks ago, so I’m really encouraged.
“Just watching him stretch it out, he stretched out [Monday], came back today and didn’t feel anything. Feels good. Did it again today, so I’m really encouraged about [Thursday] and at that point in time we’ll see about getting him back out on rehab.”
Kershaw added he felt good after throwing the flat ground and declined to call his previous shoulder soreness a setback due to the nature of the recovery from a major surgery.
“I’ve never had surgery, so I don’t know,” Kershaw said. “I feel like the upward trajectory has been pretty steady up to this point. I don’t really want to call it a setback. I just think it’s just like getting your feet underneath you a little bit. I don’t feel like it’ll delay the process by that much.”
Kershaw received some treatment while he was shut down that improved his shoulder, but he was unsure if that soreness was normal or something more unusual.
“It could be part of it, it could be a little hiccup, I don’t know,” Kershaw said. “I was able to get some shots and feel better with it.”
After being shut down, Kershaw underwent an MRI that didn’t show any new injury in the shoulder, which gave the club some extra optimism, and Kershaw feels similarly.
“I think with the MRI and the outcome, it was good,” Kershaw said. “Obviously, any time it doesn’t feel good, you get worried, just because you’ve been down that road. But it was a good outcome with everything.
“The timeline is still on our side. I’m not happy, but I’m not going to be happy until I get to go back out there. But it could’ve been a lot worse, for sure.”
Timeline for Clayton Kershaw
The hope was that Kershaw would return some time between late July to the middle of August, and that remains on track even with the shutdown.
“Not much,” Roberts said about a change in the timeline. “I think Dr. (Neal) ElAttrache said this is kind of going to be the ebbs and flows of this process, so it’s not something we were completely taken aback by.
“I don’t think it’s going to set him back much. I’m still holding out hope he comes back sooner rather than later. I don’t want to say before the (All-Star) break or right after, but I’m encouraged with where he’s at. I really am.”
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