Dodgers need another ace despite Clayton Kershaw’s encouraging debut

LOS ANGELES — As Clayton Kershaw jogged out to the mound on a warm, sticky Thursday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, his family watched delightedly a few hundred feet away. His wife, Ellen, wore a No. 22 hat and her husband's jersey as she wiped away tears. She stood next to her kids, who created custom Skechers cleats for their dad to celebrate the occasion. 

The anticipation that had built behind this start, his first in over nine months, was unlike the rest in his franchise record 17 seasons as a Dodger.  

"I think just from the first time having surgery, to the rehab process, to be able to get back out there at Dodger Stadium is something I thought about for a long time," Kershaw said. "So, it meant a lot."

Not just to Kershaw and his family, but also to the Dodgers, who, yet again, will need him more than they would have expected. 

After Kershaw underwent the first surgery of his career in November, a procedure to repair the injured glenohumeral ligaments and capsule in his left shoulder that had limited him throughout the second half of the 2023 season, anything the 36-year-old provided to the Dodgers this year was supposed to be a luxury. He knew he wouldn't be able to return until the summer at the earliest, and the Dodgers prepared for that reality by revamping a rotation that ran out of pieces last year. 

They shelled out $325 million to Nippon Professional Baseball standout Yoshinobu Yamamoto. They traded for Tyler Glasnow, added James Paxton for further depth, awaited the much-anticipated return of Walker Buehler and had a plethora of young pitchers seemingly ready to take the next step in Bobby Miller, Gavin Stone and Emmet Sheehan.

And yet, the Dodgers now enter the week of the trade deadline still seeking another ace — a reality that remains, despite an encouraging first start back Thursday from Kershaw, who struck out six batters and allowed two runs in four innings against the Giants.

"I think that if this is the floor, then we're in for a fun ride with Clayton this year," manager Dave Roberts said. 

Unfortunately, the Dodgers have decisions to make before they'll know with any certainty how Kershaw's shoulder will respond. 

They hold a comfortable division lead, but despite all of their work to ensure a repeat of what took place in 2023 — when Kershaw fought through obvious limitations to try to carry a depleted Dodgers rotation through the finish line — would not happen again, injuries and ineffectiveness in the rotation have made adding another frontline starter a necessity. 

Yamamoto is sidelined with a strained rotator cuff that has left him without a clear timetable to return. Miller, who dealt with a shoulder issue earlier this year, is currently at Triple-A after posting an 8.07 ERA in seven starts. Buehler is on the injured list with hip inflammation and has been unable to recapture his usual form to this point in his return from Tommy John surgery. 

This month, four different rookies have combined to make nine of the Dodgers' 19 starts. A combined five starts have gone to Glasnow — who returned Wednesday from a back injury but is approaching his career high in innings pitched — and Stone, the only two pitchers from the Dodgers' rotation who remain on the active roster. Three starts went to Paxton, who has since been designated for assignment. Another two starts have gone to journeymen relievers who served as openers. 

And one, on Thursday, went to the Dodgers' all-time strikeout leader, who was back on a major-league mound for the first time since the wretched 2023 National League Division Series, when Kershaw was unable to escape the first inning.

That wasn't a problem Thursday, as he navigated around traffic to put up a zero and struck out Patrick Bailey on a slider to end the first inning. 

"The last couple years when he was throwing, afterwards there was soreness, pain and trying to just get to the next start," Roberts said. "Where now, days after he throws, he feels strong, he feels fresh, the soreness is in the right parts of the body. The stuff, for me, like I said a couple days ago, is better than it was last year."

Last year, after a six-week hiatus due to his ailing shoulder, Kershaw never went more than five innings and never threw more than 84 pitches in any of his final eight starts of the 2023 regular season. His stuff diminished, his pain masked yet obvious, he somehow managed to post a 2.23 ERA over that stretch. 

But the postseason, as it had so often before, unfolded differently.

Unable to rely on grit and willpower alone, he allowed six runs to the Diamondbacks in the first inning of Game 1 of the NLDS. Starters Miller and Lance Lynn did not fare much better in the games to follow. For the second straight year, the Dodgers suffered a stunning first-round exit. The future that awaited Kershaw was more uncertain than ever, but he knew he did not want that to be the final memory of his decorated Dodgers career. 

On Thursday, he fulfilled his hope of returning for the 2024 stretch run. His entrance tune "We Are Young" blasted from the Dodger Stadium speaker. His slider darted around bats, finishing off four strikeouts. His curveball fanned two more hitters. The outing, while far from perfect, brought some normalcy back to a rotation in flux.

"Just to be doing what you're meant to be doing is a good thing," Kershaw said. 

In his first start since his worst start ever, Kershaw's performance provided hope.

His fastball maxed out at 91.8 mph and sat at 90.6. He got eight swings and misses on his slider, and the Giants either whiffed or watched half of Kershaw's 10 curveballs go by for strikes. He also mixed in eight changeups, a pitch he's had in his toolbox for years but has never felt particularly comfortable deploying. 

"Hearing his song come out and just watching him sweat, compete, punch guys out, it was great," Roberts said. "I thought we pushed him enough to get him ready for his next one where we can continue to build, and we got a nice foundation. Yeah, I mean, it was such a long road for him back, and I'm just happy for him." 

The most encouraging sign came after he allowed four straight hits to start the third inning. 

With two men on and nobody out, Kershaw responded with three straight strikeouts. He got Bailey swinging on a slider, looped in a curveball to get David Villar looking and finished Thairo Estrada off with another swing on a slider to avoid further damage in a 6-4 win. 

"For the first one," Kershaw said, "I'll take it." 

The Dodgers, meanwhile, might need it. If Kershaw can continue building on that outing, there's plenty of time for him to demonstrate he's ready to start games in October. 

But if the Dodgers do what they should at the deadline, that will be a luxury; not a necessity. 

"I don't think this will have any impact on next week," Roberts said before Kershaw's start. "I think that given where the starters are at, who we have and guys that are not available, IL, I don't think Clayton's outing today has any impact on that." 

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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