February 28th, 2019 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka Earlier this week, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said that his staff ace and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw, whom he has shut down from throwing activities three times over the past two weeks, would throw again on Thursday, February 28.
By every indication, if the soon-to-be 31-year-old (on March 19) Dallas, Texas native and Dodgers 2006 first-round draft pick again comes out of that session not feeling right, he will – or at least should – be sent back to LA for an MRI; something that the Dodgers – and Kershaw – have been intentionally putting off.
Why, you ask?
Good question. And one that Roberts vaguely answered on Tuesday … If you can call it an answer.
“Nothing new, nothing new, we’re going to wait and see how it feels,” Roberts said. “He’s as tough mentally of a player that I’ve ever been around.
“Right now, with him, we just feel we’ve got a handle on the symptoms and right now we don’t feel we need one,” Roberts added. “If our medical staff felt we needed it, we would do it.”
He needs it, Doc.
Although it is understandable why the Dodgers have elected to bury their heads in the sand (three years and $93 million reasons why), it isn’t working. But no matter how deep they bury their heads, if he comes out of his catch-playing session on Thursday morning, they will have to – or at least should – accept the inevitable and send their ace back to Los Angeles to visit the Kerlan-Jobe Institute for a Magnetic Resonance Imaging – period.
As the folks at Nike would say: Just Do It.
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As a person who feels the worse I can do is think positive, which usually ends up with bad things happening, I can’t help thinking negative, but as usual I’m hoping everything works out for the best, for all things Kershaw.
Why they paid that broken down here that money instead of allocating it to Harper is baffling.
He has a better curveball than Harper … and fastball, and slider.
That said, the sooner he gets the TJ surgery over with, the sooner he gets back on the mound.
Kershaw is having issues with the shoulder tj surgery replaces the ligament in the elbow so to just get it done would not help his current situation lol
No sure about the fastball. 90 mph isn’t much these days.
Ron, there is nothing wrong with his elbow. He probably needs extended rest and/or rotator cuff surgery. In the past 3 years he has spent a few times on the DL primarily with disc problems. In my opinion, and this hurts, he is on the decline and the inevitable cannot be ignored.
Whatever it is, they need to find out then fix it. They need to do this really quick too. If it is a rotator cuff, just look at how long it took Ryu to return.
Waiting around accomplishes nothing. They sooner they act the sooner he’s back.
I am perplexed as to why they didn’t do an MRI immediately. What does it hurt? What does it cost? They can do it down the street and send the results to Kerlan/Jobe. Yeah, Just Do it!!
As the last three seasons would suggest, Kershaw’s best days are behind him. Surprising that a guy that young would fall apart physically the way he obviously has. Maybe it was the funky delivery motion. Whatever the case, it looks like the Dodgers may have thrown away $93M. …..I know, chump change.
The best way to look at it is they pretty much just added on a extra year 31 mil to his previous contract they were already obligated to pay to a guy that is for sure going into the hall of fame wearing their jersey. But he’s still got 3 years to prove people wrong so hopefully he gains his velocity back and that 93 mil is worth it.
To me it just reinforces my views on Roberts and the medical staff… they are lacking. We have been through this underestimation of injuries for several years now and the Dodger ‘brain trust’, if ya can call it that leaves a lot to be desired.
All of this is just speculation until he gets back in the groove or we know what’s going on. Nobody is talking for now.
I’m wondering it this will turn out to be another comparison with Sandy.
I indeed got mixed up regarding his elbow, but with good cause. While I was at spring training, Roberts made a reference that Kershaw had a little “arm thing” going, including his elbow. This was apparently not accurate and for some reason it stuck in my pea brain.
Sarah has a piece coming out tomorrow morning that is quite good and accurately addresses the shoulder “arm thing.”
Apologies for the error and confusion.
There is absolutely no excuse if Kershaw did not get stem cell treatment over the offseason. In fact, he should have been getting it done EVERY offseason for the last 3 years. It’s beyond negligent if the medical staff/advisors haven’t suggested it to him, and now the Dodgers are about to pay the price for their apparentl negligence.