The real answer is “We do not know and may not know for a long time… maybe years!” Years? Yes, it could be a couple of years. Could be! If Clayton needs Tommy John Surgery… as I suspect he does, he could decide to take a couple of years off for the surgery and recovery. He could rehab and spend time with his young family. He could take his time and miss 2022 and 2023…. coming back in 2024, maybe as the Opening Day Starter! He would be 36 (younger than Max Scherzer is now) and likely re-acquire a 95 to 96 MPH fastball and be able to pitch into his 40’s. That is the best-case scenario!
Clayton’s velocity has been dropping over the past several years as his ulnar collateral ligament has frayed. Forearm tightness and soreness is an indicator that the UCL is tearing or fraying. I have felt for quite some time that was what was happening with Clayton. The worst-case scenario (at least for Dodger fans) is that Clayton decides against surgery and retires. That happens to be a very strong possibility, especially with his family situation. How hot does his fire still burn? If it is intense, he will be back, but maybe he is done.
Juan Toribio of Dodgers.com said Kershaw said that once he threw the last slider to Wong in the second inning, he knew that he had thrown his last pitch of the night. The left-hander, who will undergo further testing on Saturday, also made it sound like his season will be over. He provided this quote from Clayton:
“It’s a tough blow, obviously. Kinda the same thing I’ve been dealing with and [it] just got bad enough to where I couldn’t keep going tonight. Haven’t quite wrapped my head around that yet. The biggest thing was I just wanted to be a part of this team through October. That’s the hardest part for me right now, just knowing that chances are that it’s not looking good for October right now. … I’m excited for these guys to do what they’re gonna do in October.”
After the game Clayton said this:
“My future is going to take care of itself. I’m not really worried about that right now. I really wanted to be a part of the moment right now and I wanted to be with this group through October. That was my only focus this whole year once I got hurt, it was to come back and make it up for this month. As far as anything else goes, I haven’t wrapped my head around it and I don’t plan to anytime soon.”
You saw the ovation that Dodger Stadium gave Clayton and then you saw Clayton’s Teammates pick him up and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in dramatic fashion. It looks like the Dodgers have literally “flipped the switch” and are now in “Beast Mode.”
We might as well accept that Clayton is done for the season… maybe his career is done, but I am sure that Clayton and the Dodgers could work out a personal services contract for a couple of years… maybe just 2022, and 2023, with him returning in 2024. No rush – make sure the arm is back to full strength. This is all conjecture and I am not a doctor, but having been through a torn UCL, I have a pretty good idea how it feels. I never had surgery and it took almost 10 years before I could throw a baseball more than 30 feet. Now, I can probably throw one 70 to 80 feet without pain. It happened to me in my early 40’s. I saw no reason to have it fixed and it does not bother me in the least. I just can’t throw too far.
I am sure that Clayton will do what is best for him and his family and if he does not have surgery in the next couple of weeks, I think we will know what his answer is. It’s been a hell of a run, Big Guy and you were sure a joy to watch and a Class Act on top of it! We know that either way, you will be in the dugout rooting your team home. You carried this team for so long. Now it’s time for your boys to win one more for you!
If the Dodgers don’t catch the Giants (and it ain’t looking good), they will likely make history (with one more victory) by winning more games than any other defending World Series champ, and more wins than any other second-place team (in the divisional era). Is it possible that at the end of the season, the Dodgers could be #1 in the Power Poll even without the best record?
What can you say about Trea Turner? Two-HR and five RBI to absolutely destroy the Brewers? It would be amazing if the Dodgers could keep both Seager and Turner for the foreseeable future!
Dodger Stuff
- I am against Julio Urias pitching tonight, but I guess you have to give him a shot at 20 wins. I think the Dodgers can beat up on Corbin Burnes! They eat right-handers for lunch… lefties for dinner!
- Tony Gonsolin now become part of the playoff rotation and they don’t need a 5th Starter.
- Don’t be surprised if Mitch White and Victor Gonzalez are on the playoff roster.
Discussion (43)
Disagree, not disagreeable
This team has a habit of consistently reminding me to never count them out and why they’re so lovable. After the Bay series letdown, I wanted to skip a few Buehler and Urias starts so they’d be fresher for the playoffs. Still up in the air if that would have been the better strategy, but both guys are coming off positive starts so what do I know.
As for tomorrow, I can’t shake my cautious nature. I’d do the bullpen game tomorrow and save Buehler/Scherzer for 163 and the Cards game. IMO the wild card game is the most important since it’s win or go home, and the nightmare scenario where neither Buehler or Scherzer can pitch and Urias is on 3 day rest would be regretful. The offense is hot, scoring 8 or more runs in the last 4 games and will be working against the Brewers bullpen, so I think we can score enough to hold on. Hopefully, it’s another what do I know and the Dodgers get their 8 runs by the 5th inning and we can safely pull Buehler.
Clayton first to greet Julio when he came off the field. Glad Albert got vaccinated with all the HR hugs he is giving out these days.
12.00 LA. 15.10 NY. Hope Padres make their job well
Alll games will start at the same time, tomorrow. 2.10 pm in México
Price just might be left off of the playoff roster.
Mitch White looks beefed up.
Giants exercising the team sphincter muscle tomorrow all day long.
Cy Urias gonna get 20
So if Buehler starts tomorrow, and then Scherzer Monday for Game 163, who starts a potential Wild Card Game on Wednesday? Gonsolin and everybody else??
Well Seager is ready for October! Right now he could play shortstop left handed and I’d be happy. I don’t think there’s any more discussion of who you’d rather sign between him and Bellinger. Got to resign him!!!!!
The Padres are starting someone named Reiss Knehr tomorrow….
You MUST be thinking of pulling Urias soon. To avoid the bullpen game possibly coinciding with the Wildcard, right?
Julio did his part! He has now evolved into that co ace with Buehler! What a statement year for the young man!!! And last year so many were trying to push him into the pen and now he’s a top 5 Cy Young candidate!
Buehler starting tomorrow.
We’re going to 162!!!!!! What a time to put it all together! The offense has finally awoke!!!!! Epic stretch run! Whatever happens tomorrow this team is ready to defend their title!
If Corbin Burnes dominates us tonight, it could get him the Cy Young Award.
His numbers are great
We’ll see how our offense matches up against Burnes. A true playoff test for them. Tho I don’t see Brewers letting him go more than 5 innings like Woodford the other day. Julio needs to be playoff good tonight! It would be a huge 20 th game win for him and the team tonight! Get us to game 162!
Things are looking interesting. Postseason starts today for the Dodgers. today is a win or die game. and the successive ones too. I like this adrenaline
DODGERS RECALL MITCH WHITE
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers recalled right-handed pitcher Mitch White and placed left-handed pitcher Clayton Kershaw on the 10-day injured list with left forearm discomfort.
White, 26, returns for his 10th stint with the team and he is 1-3 with a 3.74 ERA (19 ER/45.2 IP) and 48 strikeouts in 20 games for the Dodgers. He has spent parts of the season with Low-A Rancho Cucamonga and Triple-A Oklahoma City, going a combined 3-0 with a 1.65 ERA (8 ER/43.2 IP) and 53 strikeouts in 10 games. In 10 games at the Triple-A level, he is 1-0 with a 1.69 ERA (6 ER/32.0 IP) and 39 strikeouts. The former second rounder out of Santa Clara University is 2-3 with a 3.51 ERA (19 ER/48.2 IP) in 22 career MLB games.
Kershaw, 33, started last night, pitching 1.2 innings, allowing three runs with one strikeout. This is his second stint on the injured list this season, missing 57 games from August 9 through September 13. On the season, he is 10-8 with a 3.55 ERA (48 ER/121.2 IP) with 144 strikeouts. The three-time Cy Young award winner has been with the Dodgers since being drafted as the seventh overall selection in the 2006 First Year Player Draft out of Highland Park High School and is 185-84 with a 2.49 ERA (679 ER/2454.2 IP) and 2,670 strikeouts.
HITTERS H-AB RBI HR SB AVG
M. BettsRF 123-459 57 23 10 .268
C. SeagerSS 103-346 55 15 1 .298
T. Turner2B 192-588 73 27 32 .327
M. Muncy1B 122-493 93 36 2 .247
J. Turner3B 146-526 84 26 3 .278
W. SmithC 106-408 75 25 3 .260
A. PollockLF 113-378 67 20 9 .299
C. BellingerCF 51-310 36 10 3 .165
J. UriasP 12-57 9 0 0 .211
10/02/21 Los Angeles Dodgers placed LHP Clayton Kershaw on the 10-day injured list. Left forearm discomfort.
10/02/21 Los Angeles Dodgers recalled RHP Mitch White from Oklahoma City Dodgers.
Game on
The Giants are up by one game!
So it will be decided tonight in LA or tomorrow.
Well now, things just got VERY interesting.
cheers
pb+
Padres up 3-2 in the 10th, but they are capable of blowing it!
Padres-Giants to extra innings.
2-2 Padres
Eric – carry on posting please
I know where your coming from.
You’re always welcome here
Giants-Pads 1-1 in the 6th.
Of course Tingler is getting fired. Why wouldn’t he?
You can’t fire the whole team, especially after committing the money and the prospects in trade to build this team. AJ Preller has to blame someone, so he fires the manager in hopes that he doesn’t lose his own job. Now, that isn’t to say Preller won’t also be fired. He built this team and sacrificed quite a few prospects to do so. If the execs want to fire Preller, the new GM is going to want to hire his own manager anyway, so it really doesn’t make any sense to bring Tingler back.
The Padres don’t have a ton of holes to fill this offseason. They’re going to bring back mostly the same team. No one in their Rotation or Starting Lineup is on an expired contract. Clevenger will back to join the staff and a couple of pitching prospect will be a year older. Other than that, they’ll have to pick up some relief pitchers like every other team, plus replace their closer in Melancon. Pham, Profar and Marisnick are all bench players who will need to be replaced.
Kershaw is young but above all he is a warrior, if you have to undergo surgery he will do it, he is a guy with a lot of character and temperance and he will not give up, not at that age and because there are solutions, it is not as if he no longer there would be nothing to do or if everything was finished, it is not like that; I will not be the first or the last to return, after surgery, reborn and with an increase in speed, retiring with still that internal fire would be very frustrating for CK, he will try, he is a warrior !!!
Jayce Tingler will be fired after the season ends. Just announced on MLBTR. Giants get McGee back.
If Kershaw has TJ surgery, sooner the better, he will miss one full year. Worst case scenario is 18 months which puts him ready in April, 2022.
Andrew has signed at least a few pitchers to two year contracts where they sit for a year and comeback to play the following.
This scenario makes plenty of sense, I don’t see it not happening. Even if he feels like he might be ready to retire, AF is going to make an easy case saying “We’ll cover all the costs associated with the surgery and rehab and you’ll be getting paid something for another couple of years.”
The only way I don’t see it happening is if he’s dead set on retiring.
I don’t know how much money the Dodgers can spend this off-season but assuming there is a cap, it seems pretty obvious to me Scherzer has to be our number one priority when it comes to starting pitching.
Kershaw is broken down and won’t give you a full season and you have to wonder if he can even get you a half a season. Again, if you have to count dollars, we re better off putting our money on someone healthy and whole- Scherzer, Seager, Pollock, and even Jansen.
Arkansas just cannot beat ranked teams. The # 8 ranked Hogs are getting crushed by Georgia, 28-0. USC up 3-0 on Colorado over in Boulder. SC in all reality should roll over those guys.
I disagree with you guys about the Yanks. Maybe because I’ve never seen a Dodger-Yankee World Series (and we got screwed of one in 2017 by the Trashtros), but I want LA-NY .
My perfect scenario is we go to SF for Game 163. We win the division in SF. Then after SF beats the Cards, we go win the NLDS in SF in Game 3. That’s a double beat down within a week!!
Then after the NLCS, beat NY in a dream World Series.
I know I’m in the very small minority as far as Bauer is concerned but I believe a man should be innocent until PROVEN guilty. There are many things that don’t make sense and to me it smells of a San Diego odor. Perhaps that’s why the Padres stunt as a team the last month or two.
Be that as it may but you can’t convince me that 1. We wouldn’t have made the trade for Schertzer and TT even if we still had Bauer in the rotation and 2. We would’ve clinched the division weeks ago with Schertzer, Buehler, Bauer, Urias and CK in the rotation.
Good morning all. I almost turned the game off after they were down 5-1. It was not fun watching Kersh get pulled in the second inning, but you knew something was amiss. I think Kersh’s continuing to play, or retire to work with his philanthropic endeavors and his family, is going to simply depend on how much he wants to keep playing and go through all the rigors of an extended rehabilitation. I do know simply from his statements last night that he is extremely frustrated not being able to be out there with the team and help win another Championship. Best case scenario, he retires. If he got the surgery tomorrow, he would miss all of next season, and a portion of 23. The longer he waits, the older he is going to be when he is finally ready.
Kersh right now is a first ballot Hall of Famer. I see no need unless he wants to keep playing, to go through all of that. Trea Turner had a great game and he almost ruined it misplaying an easy grounder. The Brewers though did not take advantage of that. Voglebach is one large human being. But I feared he would have a heart attack running to first.
For me, let the Giants finish this up today. I am fine with that. At this point, I do not want to see a game 163. It would cause them to use Scherzer, on the road, in a ball park he has never pitched in against a team that he does not have a very good record against. Then if they lost, they would have to play the wild card game at home with their second best pitcher, Buehler, pitching against the Cardinals.
Let Scherzer beat the Cardinals, and he would set up to pitch game 3 of the NLDS in Los Angeles. Nice to see Beaty get that PH homer. It has been a while since he actually did something positive. He got a real bear hug from Tio Albert who also came through with a PH single just before Turner unloaded.
I fear we have seen the last of Clayton Kershaw as a baseball player. I think Mark was spot on early on when he suggested CK would need TJ surgery. That elbow looks done.
When he kept that ball instead of handing it to DR that was my initial thought and it is still what I think now.
So glad they won that WS title last year with Clayton getting 2 big wins in the series.
From a salary standpoint the Dodgers would get a huge chunk of money freed up if Clayton indeed does retire and they get rid of that TB contract. That is about 70 million dollars right there. Should partially be used on Corey and Max SCherzer. With both May and Clayton probably not available for 2022 (in DM case at least until August) we need Max to shore up that rotation.
Will be interesting to see what the Dodgers do tonight with Julio. Should the Giants win there afternoon game and secure the division I would give Julio the day off and rest his arm. We can not risk to lose another starter going into postseason play. We are already thin now in that deparatment with the loss of Clayton, Dustin and the Bauer saga.
Gonsolin as the Nr. 4 in a playoff series does not look as formidable as a Bauer, May or Clayton in that role.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was really unsettling to see Clayton Kershaw done like that. The last game of the regular season and all is a hell of a way to go out. I hope this isn’t the end, but if it is…
Thank you Clayton for all the years of greatness watching the best pitcher to ever wear the Blue in my lifetime.
I sure hope that AF meets with him at the end of the year and gives him a two year deal to get the zipper and come back for one more go around, maybe more if it works out they way we all want it to.
There’s two more games remaining with 2 out of the top spot. Let’s see a miracle finish! The Padres seem content to keep their tails between their legs and limp off the field in shame. They’ve already secured a losing record on the season and Tingler is about to be taken out by Preller to save his own skin. Can’t fire the whole team after all.
It’s a pretty sad state of affairs on this site when a Giants fan comes here to post to tell us how spoiled we are complaining about a 100+ win team. Even more sad is a Giants fan with such envy that he comes to a Dodgers fan site to read comments. Stay in your lane, bro!
I don’t know what I prefer. The Yankees losing the next two and missing the playoffs, or the Rays losing the next two missing the 100 win mark.
I’m preparing to shift my thinking from being disappointed about breaking the streak of Division Titles, to being proud of being the greatest Wild Card team ever. With a championship win, the Dodgers will become the 7th Wild Card team to win the big one and the one with the best regular season record.
The Dodgers showed some moxie last night coming back from a 4 run deficit against potential playoff foe Brew Crew. I can’t wait to see the two Cy Young hopefuls matchup in tonight’s game. What would be the point in resting Urias? The NL Division Series starts on Friday, 5 days rest is plenty.
Is it Barnes’ fault that Kershaw and Graterol gave up all those early runs and Kershaw’s arm fell off? I don’t think he had anything to do with those poor showings. Catcher’s ERA is so random and shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
Great job by the bullpen last night. Graterol’s line doesn’t look great, but he’s a ground ball pitcher and he got the grounders, they just didn’t find gloves. Good call bringing in Jansen for the 4 out save last night. Kelly and Treinen get pinched more than anyone it seems. I’m thinking these old umpires have problems tracking their pitches.
If the giants win their 1pm game today, I’d let Urias go 5 ip MAX, just so he can get his 20th win. I”m sure all the players would want that for him.
If the giants lose today, then go all out and get the W tonight, and if Urias sucks, well then too bad, take him out early.
I’m not ready to say goodbye to Kersh. I hope and pray that he can return for another run! And what an epic finish by our guys! No quit in these guys and they look ready to make a big run in October! No shame when the other guy just outplayed you. Kudos the Dodgers for a great season and an even better finish!!!
I think CK will want to go out on his terms, not walking off the mound after a poor performance. I’m in the camp that says he gets the surgery and comes back for a few more dominant years. I think that once he considers how much fun he has pitching when he isn’t hurt, he’ll be willing to go through the rehab.
The Dodgers will certainly make it happen contract-wise if that’s what he decides and, no, he’ll never wear another uniform. It’s Dodger Blue or nothing.
It seems labor strife is on its way to MLB and perhaps the 2022 season is impacted by the lack of a CBA and the 2022 season is shortened or impacted in some way where a decision on CK is mute. IF he needs surgery, and I’m in the camp he probably does, perhaps he gets the surgery, stays in Dallas with family while he rehabilitates and then signs a contract for 23-24 as Mark has alluded to.
Love the guy, but the more I think about it I think he gets the surgery, signs with the Dodgers and has 2 or 3 more dominant years. First ballot Hall of Famer wearing a Dodger hat only.
Don’t want to open a can of worms but what this team has done through all of the injuries and subpar performance from Bellinger has been amazing. AF’s trade for Scherzer and TT was a stroke of genius In the “what if” category, what if Bauer hadn’t been stupid and pitched all year. Do the Dodgers still acquire Max? Would having him pitch the entire year been enough to close the gap on the Giants?
I’m of the belief TB deserves due process, but what an absolute “douche” to let his team down like he has done. It seems ludicrous that he should still get paid for while suspended and not part of the team. Would love to see the Dodger litigate the contractual obligation and rid themselves of that financial obligation and use that $$ to play again in the FA market (e.g sign Seager and possibly KJ).
We will know by game time tonight whether we have a shot or should we re-set and focus on the WC game. I like our chances if we can survive the WC game and Wainwright.
You pretty much summed up exactly what I was thinking Mark. I’d add that I thought he should have decided if he was going to do the surgery in July, as that would put him 6 months ahead of schedule and ready to go in early ‘23. Like you said, he’s not too old to do this. If anyone could do it it’s him.
Good to see the offense waking up. Bummer the giants are playing a team that quit.
If we pitch Urias, and we will, I keep him on a pitch count.
If it’s the Cardinals, I think we beat them going away.
It will a shame if Kershaw’s career with the Dodgers ended last night that way. Hopefully we can get him a second World Series Championship if this was the final inning he will ever pitch. A true Dodger in every sense of the word. Class personified. Next move the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.
I assume Mitchell White may take CK’s spot on the roster.