Los Angeles Dodgers Season Hangs on Clayton Kershaw
By David Hill
It is, for the most part, impossible to say that an injury to one player will doom a team’s season. The Los Angeles Dodgers may be the exception to that rule.
It may be fair to say that the Los Angeles Dodgers have been a disappointment thus far. Despite their various moves this offseason, they had a 44-37 record, as their pitching staff has failed to live up to expectations and their offense has struggled to find any semblance of consistency. Even though they are currently leading the Wild Card race, it certainly feels as though the Dodgers grasp on the postseason is tenuous at best.
To make matters even worse, the Dodgers placed their ace, and arguably the best pitcher in baseball, Clayton Kershaw, on the disabled list yesterday. This would be a tremendous blow to any team, but it is especially so with the Dodgers, who simply are lacking that pitching depth they felt they had at the start of the year.
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Quite frankly, Kershaw is the only reason as to why the Dodgers are even in the playoff race to begin with. Kershaw is 11-2 with a 1.79 ERA, a 0.727 WHiP and a 16.11 strikeout to walk rate. In non-Kershaw starts, the Dodgers are a mediocre 33-35, placing them in roughly the same spot in the standings as the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Colorado Rockies. While they would nominally be contending for a playoff spot, no one would consider the Dodgers contenders.
Should Kershaw be out for an extended period of time, they may well find themselves relegated to this status. After his epidural for his mild disc herniation, he is expected to miss more than the two week minimum DL stint, making his return to the Dodgers unknown. In responce, they acquired Bud Norris, but the idea that Norris would be able to replicate Kershaw is beyond even the newly acquired pitcher’s wildest fantasies.
The Dodgers season hinges entirely on whether or not Kershaw can come back in a shorter time frame. If he is out closer to that fifteen day span, then the Dodgers could well weather the storm and stay in contention. However, if Kershaw is out for a month or more, then the Dodgers task to maintain their position becomes much more difficult, if not impossible, to maintain.
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The Los Angeles Dodgers season may well rest on Clayton Kershaw’s back. Considering that he has carried them into postseason contention already this season, that should not be much of a surprise.