Sometimes, it’s just the one thing.
Unlike so many recent seasons, most of Clayton Kershaw’s body feels great right now. His oft-injured back is strong. His shoulder has healed from offseason surgery. And, for a 36-year-old with more than 2,700 career big-league innings, he believes his arm is in a great spot.
Yet, Kershaw is once again sidelined with October fast approaching — this time, of all things, by an injury to the big toe on his left foot.
“It’s beyond frustrating,” the Dodgers pitcher said Monday. “Because, I really do, my body feels great. Shoulder, back, everything feels really good. It’s just that last little bit.”
Kershaw’s left big toe — a key component in his ability to push off the rubber as a left-handed pitcher — has been compromised by a bone spur that flared up during an Aug. 30 start in Arizona.
The pitcher has been on the injured list ever since, leaving his late-season status in doubt as he races against the clock to return to the mound.
“I think I’ll be able to,” Kershaw said when asked of his confidence level in pitching again before the end of the regular season. “I don’t want to put a percentage on it, but I do feel like — I mean, it’s been eight days [since the injury]. There’s been a lot of progress in the last eight days. So, I feel like I’ve got a finite window that I need to at least be throwing bullpens. If it continues, I think I’ll be good. But I can’t really have any delays.”
While Kershaw has dealt with his bone spur for “a couple years,” manager Dave Roberts said the night of his injury, it didn’t start to have a noticeable impact on his performance until his start in Arizona.
After the first inning of that game, Kershaw alerted Roberts and the training staff of his discomfort.
When he gave up a home run to his first batter of the second inning — on a hanging 67.4 mph curveball that was one of the slowest of his 17-year career — Roberts removed him from the game.
“If you can’t push off,” Kershaw said, “you can’t create what you need to create.”
Since going on the IL, Kershaw has tried various methods to keep his arm loose while letting his toe heal.
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw stands on the mound against the Tampa Bay Rays on Aug. 24.
(Ashley Landis / Associated Press)
He has thrown flat-ground sessions in both tennis shoes and a walking boot. He has tested out different “angles of my foot” in his delivery. On Monday, he even pitched off a portable throwing ramp in the outfield, wearing only a sock on his left foot.
“I’m just trying everything to try and take the pressure off of it, to keep my arm going as best I can so when I do feel 100% I won’t need that much rehab time,” Kershaw said. “Throwing off the mound, that turf mound, felt a little better today. So I feel like I’m doing enough to keep my arm going. It’s not there yet to be able to push off for a full game. But it’s getting better.”
That experimentation has extended to Kershaw’s shoe sponsor, Skechers.
He said the footwear company has been working with him to modify his game spikes — if not create completely new ones on the fly — to minimize the pressure on his toe when he pitches.
“Today I had some cleats where we shaved some of the cleats off to take the pressure off,” he said. “Skechers is thinking about different ways to make some shoes for me, different insoles. They’re trying. I don’t have anything yet, but got some different orthotics coming today. So, we’re trying. It’s not from a lack of effort.”
Whether it will all be enough to get Kershaw back to game action before the start of the playoffs remains to be seen.
While he is hopeful of a quick return once his toe improves enough to properly push off the rubber, he acknowledged Monday that “there’s not that much time” for that process to play out.
Roberts has also made no promises about Kershaw’s potential availability, voicing only cautious optimism Monday despite describing Kershaw’s throwing session as a “good step.”
“He’s doing everything he can to keep his arm in shape, test the toe,” Roberts said. “I think we’re holding, and hopefully each passing day it continues to heal.”
In a best-case scenario, Kershaw believes he could make “some starts” before the end of the regular season, and give the Dodgers’ injury-plagued pitching staff another veteran option to consider for a potential postseason rotation.
“I still have some hope that I’ll be able to be in the conversation,” Kershaw said. “That’s the goal right now.”
Though Kershaw was only 2-2 with a 4.50 ERA in seven starts this year, averaging a career-low 89.9 mph with his fastball in his return from offseason shoulder surgery, the Dodgers could still use whatever depth they can get right now.
While Yoshinobu Yamamoto will return from his shoulder injury Tuesday, Tyler Glasnow and Gavin Stone remain questionable to be ready in time for October.
“My goal is to be available,” Kershaw said, “and then whatever happens, happens.”
In the meantime, Kershaw has no choice but to wait for his toe to feel better — hopeful that his latest bothersome body part doesn’t sideline him for a postseason push.
“Just pushing up against [the calendar] as close as I can, to at least have a little bit of time in the regular season to go make some starts,” he said of his uncertain timeline to return. “But yeah, it’s gonna be close for sure.”