Dodgers’ Dave Roberts gives injury update on Clayton Kershaw

Clayton Kershaw is the latest pitcher in the starting rotation to suffer an injury this season. The future MLB Hall of Famer had to leave Game 1 of the series against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field early with a left foot injury after pitching just one inning.

Another pillar of the rotation has fallen

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts confirmed ahead of Game 2 against the Diamondbacks that Clayton Kershaw has a bone spur on his left big toe, which was detected after the player underwent tests. “Obviously, it’s not good,” Roberts began by saying.

“There’s swelling. There’s pain. He’s doing everything he can to deal with it. Some starts feel good and it doesn’t allow him to pitch, but today (Friday) certainly wasn’t like that. Then you start to worry about how it might affect his arm. There was no other option but to take him out in that second inning after Corbin Carroll’s at-bat”.

“We’ll see how he does tomorrow. We have someone who could come in if it’s an DL situation,” the coach concluded. Clayton Kershaw spoke after Friday night’s game about the injury he’s been dealing with for several years.

“But no matter what I did, I couldn’t find a comfortable way to push off my toe,” Kershaw told Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. “It’s super frustrating, obviously, to put the team in a very tough situation, having to have the bullpen go eight innings.”

Kershaw’s injury could further hamper the Dodgers’ starting pitching rotation in the final stretch of the 2024 MLB season, adding to the absences of Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the poor form that Walker Buehler has shown since his recovery from his second Tommy John surgery.