For those who were suspicious about why Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman has been adding pitchers to his 40-man roster of late, and even more so why Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has been doing a daily tap dance about the return of Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw from the IL for left forearm inflammation, your suspicions were right.

During his Zoom media conference on Friday afternoon, the future Hall of Famer confirmed our worst fears – that he is a month away from returning to action, not days, as the Dodgers skipper has been repeatedly telling us.

“Basically, I just tried to come back too fast, which is a bummer,” Kershaw told reporters. “After the sim game, I really didn’t respond well. It’s frustrating. It’s still nothing serious, but it’s just something that’s going to take a little bit of time.

“It’s no fun; being hurt is miserable. I really don’t enjoy it at all, especially with what’s going on here and the guys that we have coming in,” he added. “This stretch run right now; I want to be a part of it so bad, so I’m going to do everything I can to be back, and I think I will be. But you’re definitely looking more like September than August. I know we’re still going to be in the middle of it, so I’m excited to be a part of it then.”

To his credit, if you can call it that, Roberts told the large gathering of Dodgers fans at Thursday night’s All-Access event at Dodger Stadium, “I guess I kind of spin things.”

Yes, Doc, you do.

On the bright side, in addition to trading for fellow future Hall of Fame right-hander Max Scherzer and left-hander Danny Duffy last week, Friedman acquired left-hander Cole Hamels and right-hander Nick Tropeano this week. Although Tropeano started 39 of the 54 games in which he appeared over his seven major league seasons, he will most likely be used out of the Dodgers bullpen once he has been built up.

Play Ball!

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