The Los Angeles Dodgers may soon be welcoming back a familiar face to their starting rotation. Clayton Kershaw, working his way back from offseason knee and toe surgeries, is scheduled to make another Triple-A rehab start on Sunday that could be his final tune-up before rejoining the major league club.
The 37-year-old future Hall of Famer has been steadily building his pitch count and showing encouraging signs throughout his rehab assignment, including six impressive no-hit innings against rookie-level competition in the Arizona Complex League on Tuesday.
Rehab Progress Shows Promise
Kershaw has now made four minor league rehab starts, gradually increasing his workload with each outing. His most recent appearance in the Arizona Complex League demonstrated his effectiveness, as he struck out four batters with just one walk over six hitless innings.
“From what I hear, he’s throwing the baseball well,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s certainly not major-league competition, but I know Clayton is doing everything he can to, once he gets here, be the best pitcher he can be to help us win baseball games. He’s not just checking boxes, going through the motions.”
After Tuesday’s outing, Kershaw continued working in the bullpen to push his pitch count to around 80. In his previous rehab start with Triple-A Oklahoma City last Wednesday, he threw five innings on 66 pitches, showing the steady progression the Dodgers have been looking for.
Perfect Timing for the Los Angeles Rotation
Kershaw becomes eligible to be activated from the 60-day injured list on May 18, which falls one week after his upcoming Triple-A start on Sunday. Should all go well, his return would coincide with a challenging stretch of the team’s’ schedule.
“The timing is perfect,” Roberts said, “given [we are] dropping guys in, playing 19 games in 20 days.”
The Dodgers, despite holding baseball’s best record at 24-12, could certainly use reinforcement in their rotation. The team currently has seven starters on the injured list, including Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, both sidelined with shoulder inflammation. As a result, the Dodgers have already used 11 different starting pitchers through their first 36 games, forcing them to schedule regular bullpen games.
Milestone Watch for the Lefty Legend
When Kershaw does return to the mound, he’ll be on the verge of a significant career milestone. With 2,968 strikeouts to his name, the three-time Cy Young Award winner needs just 32 more to reach 3,000 for his career, which would make him only the 20th pitcher in MLB history to achieve that mark.
More impressively, he would become only the fourth left-handed pitcher to join the 3,000-strikeout club, alongside Hall of Famers Randy Johnson, Steve Carlton and CC Sabathia.
If the Dodgers activate Kershaw on May 18 as speculated, his 2025 season debut would come against the Los Angeles Angels in a Freeway Series matchup at Dodger Stadium — setting the stage for what the team hopes will be another championship run with their longtime ace back in the fold.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
Really looking forward to seeing CK back on the mound. We could certainly use him. Happy to see he’s already up to 80 pitches in his rehab assignments. He could be a real help to the bullpen if he can go 6 or more innings when he starts.
I’m still astonished to see how good our record is considering all the injuries, first to pitchers and now to position players, that we’ve experienced. This team is as good as advertised. They just haven’t had a real chance to prove that yet.
I remember last year started with the bottom of the batting order contributing absolutely nothing but outs at the beginning of the year. That eventually straightened itself out because of Doc and Andrew exhibiting patience with guys like Muncy.
This year it’s Muncy again plus Conforto. I’m going on record as saying they’ll both contribute substantially this year and we’ll be glad we have them.
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I wish I had your optimism. Muncy’s glove keeps him in the lineup but Conforto just looks worse than awful. It’s time to get Dalton Rushing traded for a player we need or bring him up and let him play some LF. I’m pretty sure he’s played there some in the minors because Will Smith clearly has the catcher spot for as long as the Dodgers want him there and then they will move him to 3B would be my guess.
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Clayton to the damn rescue! Just when our rotation looked like it was about to crack under injuries we get the man back even if he’s not the Kersh of old he’s still a damn good starting pitcher. I didn’t think we would see him until late July so this is a huge bonus.
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Damn it’s a sad day to be a Dodger. Barnesy’s 11 year Dodger career is done to make room for the kid. I bet Kershaw isn’t happy, especially so close to his return to the mound. Barnes has been Kersh’s personal catcher since he took over from AJ Ellis. Honestly I would rather Conforto be DFA’d and play Rushing in LF right now but I get the move. Barnes didn’t make nearly what Conforto does. One of the underrated all time Dodger fan favorites, I know I was a fan at least. I hope he catches on somewhere but if not maybe he comes back at some point but his career may be over. If it is then congrats on retirement and thank you 15!
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Kind of a tough way to be told you’re no longer wanted after 11 years.
I definitely think it was the right move but I wish they could have found a different way to do it.
I really hope they’ve already discussed having Barnes come back to the organization once he finally hangs ’em up. He’d be a great asset as a roving catching instructor.
And by the way, Conforto is hitting .600 in his last 10 at bats. I believe in very small sample sizes. 🙂
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Outman’s hitting like a buck .060 with a 50% K rate. 😞
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Hopefully Edman and/or Teo aren’t too far away. Whichever of them is back first is Outman’s ticket back to OKC.
I really feel bad for him, but he simply is not an MLB player right now.
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Kim needs to be hitting higher than 9th in the order. I want Conforto to at least platoon with Dalton Rushing in LF. I really thought they should have kept Barnes as backup catcher and let Rushing try some LF.
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