MIAMI — The Dodgers placed Clayton Kershaw on the 10-day injured list because of left forearm inflammation Wednesday. Right-hander Mitch White was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City to replace Kershaw on the roster.
Kershaw, 33, last pitched Saturday against the Washington Nationals. He threw four innings before a 1-hour, 44-minute rain delay ended his night. Kershaw gave up three runs on three hits. He has a 3.39 earned-run average in 106 1/3 innings across 18 starts this season.
The setback is a significant blow to a Dodgers rotation that is already short-handed after Trevor Bauer was placed on paid seven-day administrative leave Friday.
A woman accused Bauer of sexual assault and obtained a temporary restraining order against him three days earlier. On Monday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he doesn’t expect Bauer to return to the club when his leave expires Friday. Major League Baseball is expected to get approval from the players’ union to extend the leave another seven days.
Bauer had been scheduled to start Sunday against the Nationals. The Dodgers opted for a bullpen game instead and decided to have another one Wednesday against the Miami Marlins after using six relievers in their loss Tuesday.
Kershaw was scheduled to start Friday against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Now he won’t pitch until after the All-Star break and the Dodgers are scrambling to find someone to insert in the rotation.
The seemingly obvious answer is having David Price convert from reliever to the rotation, but the Dodgers have avoided that option. The next-best choice is Josiah Gray, the organization’s top pitching prospect. Gray threw two perfect innings Sunday for Oklahoma City after missing two months because of a shoulder impingement. It was just his second outing of 2021.
