Clayton Kershaw lined up for Dodgers No. 2 rotation spot after final Cactus League start
GOODYEAR, Ariz. — A morning rain shower in Arizona let up just in time on Tuesday for Clayton Kershaw to make his final Cactus League start of the spring, with the left-hander giving up two runs in five innings against the Cleveland Guardians at Goodyear Ballpark.
Kershaw also went to the bullpen for more work after leaving the mound at the start of the sixth, and said afterward he feels ready to go for the start of the season.
“Physically, feel great,” Kershaw said. “Pitching, it’s never gonna be exactly how you want it. Obviously, there’s some things I want to get better at. But if it started today, I’d be good.”
With Tuesday’s outing out of the way, Kershaw is set to next pitch on Sunday in a Freeway Series game against the Angels at Dodger Stadium, manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday morning.
If the three-time Cy Young Award winners remains on a regular five-day turn after that, Kershaw would be in line to start the second game of the Dodgers regular season on March 31 against the Arizona Diamondbacks — likely leaving opening day honors to teammate Julio Urías.
“He deserves it,” Kershaw said of Urías being seemingly set for the opening day start, a decision that won’t be formally announced until a league-wide reveal of opening day starters on Friday.
“It’s a special thing to get to do,” Kershaw added. “I think it should be whoever pitched the best the year before, and he did that. So he deserves it.”
For Kershaw, this spring wasn’t the most clinical Cactus League performance of his career. In three starts in Arizona, he had a 5.11 ERA over 12 1/3 innings. He struck out nine batters. He walked two.
The most important thing for the 35-year-old, however, was getting to the end of camp feeling strong physically.
“[That’s the case] for everyone, but especially for him because he’s been through it so many times,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He knows it’s not about results. Just get into the season feeling good.”
Tuesday was also another learning opportunity about MLB’s new rules for the 16th-year veteran, after he was assessed an automatic strike for stepping off the rubber in the first inning.
“I thought you could disengage the rubber anytime once per batter, but there has to be a guy on base,” Kershaw said. “Didn’t know that one either.”
Overall, though, the future Hall of Famer said he feels fine about pitch under MLB’s new regulations — including the newly instituted pitch clock.
“I feel I’m plenty fast normally, I just have to not look at it,” Kershaw said. “I find myself staring at it and thinking about it more than I need to, or should. But yeah, I think as you get going, I don’t think it affects me pitching. I just find myself looking at it more than I probably should.”
Gavin Stone among latest round of Dodgers spring roster cuts
The Dodgers made a few more trims to their spring training roster Tuesday, announcing that pitchers Gavin Stone, Adam Kolarek and Jake Reed have all been sent to minor-league camp.
Stone was having the most standout spring of the bunch, capped by an eight-strikeout gem on Sunday. While he’ll now begin the season in the minors, he’s likely to receive his first MLB call-up at some point this season.
Kolarek and Reed, veteran left- and right-handed relievers, respectively, could also be part of the Dodgers plans at some point in the campaign.
Noah Syndergaard is “out of whack” in rocky outing in which his fastball velocity remained flat
PHOENIX–Noah Syndergaard wasn’t about to get too discouraged by the velocity readings on the Camelback Ranch scoreboard when the Dodgers right-hander was dealing with a blister on one of his pitching fingers and a soggy mound that made footing a bit treacherous.
But numbers don’t lie, and Syndergaard’s fastball wasn’t exactly electric on Tuesday, sitting between 90-92 mph and touching 94 mph during a 12-1 Cactus League split-squad loss to San Francisco in which Syndergaard gave up five earned runs and six hits in 4 ⅓ innings, struck out three and walked one.
“I knew from the get-go when I was warming up in the bullpen that when I tried to use my legs, I didn’t have any footing,” Syndergaard said. “The dirt would stick to the bottom of my cleats. It kind of felt like I was throwing on turf, so I just had to battle through it.
“All the other starts I’ve had this spring, I’ve felt pretty good. This one just kind of felt out of whack from the beginning but I was able to grind through it and get my pitch count up.”
The 6-foot-6, 242-pound Syndergaard was overpowering during his first five years with the New York Mets, his four-seam fastball averaging 98 mph as he established himself as one of the better young right-handers in the league.
But after losing most of the 2020-2021 seasons to Tommy John surgery, Syndergaard’s average fastball velocity dipped to 94 mph with the Angels and Philadelphia Phillies last season, though he was still relatively effective with diminished stuff, going 10-10 with a 3.94 ERA in 25 games.
During his introductory news conference after signing a one-year, $13-million deal with the Dodgers in December, Syndergaard, 30, said, “I see no excuse as to why I can’t get back to 100 mph … and even farther than that.”
But Syndergaard was far from triple digits in his fourth Cactus League appearance on a drizzly, overcast afternoon.
“I know he’s probably more obsessed with [velocity] than I am and than the organization is,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I think people are always chasing what they’ve done before, and he’s seen 100 mph, so certainly, he knows that that’s in there.
“I do respect the fact that he hasn’t given up that, but the most important thing is to get guys out, and he’s done that. I think with the injury, this takes time. And it’s a process. So I think the velo that he’s chasing is still in there. I don’t know when it’s going to be realized. But I trust what’s happening. I really do.”
Syndergaard faced six batters, yielding singles to four of them, in the second inning Tuesday and was removed because of a high pitch count. He re-entered the game and retired the side in order in the third and fourth innings.
Syndergaard gave up a single to LaMonte Wade Jr. and a double to Thairo Estrada to open the fifth inning and walked J.D. Davis to load the bases with two outs before being pulled from the game.
“I just want to have the confidence and conviction in every pitch,” Syndergaard said. “If it means the velocity gets there, that’s fine. But I just want to be able to pitch free and easy. That’s the ultimate goal.”
Reliever Evan Phillips and flame-throwing minor leaguer Jake Pilarski impress in 5-1 loss to Rockies
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—Evan Phillips struck out two batters in one inning of work, and minor league right-hander Jake Pilarski hit 101 mph while striking out the side in the seventh inning of Monday night’s 5-1 Cactus League loss to the Colorado Rockies at Salt River Fields.
Those were about the only two highlights of the brisk 2-hour, 18-minute “bullpen” game for the Dodgers, who managed only five hits and were unable to score after loading the bases with no outs in the seventh inning. Their only run came on a Brandon Lewis RBI single in the top of the ninth.
Chris Taylor, who interrupted a sluggish spring with a three-run homer in Saturday’s victory over the Chicago White Sox, struck out twice and walked once in three plate appearances and is now batting .128 (five for 39) with a team-high 18 strikeouts in 14 games.
Left-hander Caleb Ferguson, who is expected to play a key late-inning relief role this season, was roughed up for two runs and four hits in the second inning before being replaced by Phillips, who got the last out of the second and the first two outs of the third.
Left-hander Alex Vesia struck out three of the four batters he faced in the third and fourth innings but also gave up a single to Coco Montes, who came around to score.
“There were obviously a lot of pitching changes today, but we checked a lot of boxes getting guys to do up and downs, which is great,” manager Dave Roberts said, alluding to relievers finishing one inning and starting another. “But it was like we hadn’t been playing under the lights in quite some time.”
Pilarski, a 24-year-old who went undrafted out of The Citadel in 2021 and pitched independent-league ball in 2021 and 2022, showed off a lively fastball that gained 5-6 mph in velocity through his winter work at Tread Athletics in Charlotte, N.C., over the winter.
“He went there and kind of gained like five or six miles an hour and cleaned up his delivery,” Roberts said. “If he keeps pitching, he’s gonna be on the fast track. I’m excited about him.”
A ‘frustrated’ Daniel Hudson laments slow return from left knee surgery
PHOENIX — Daniel Hudson said Monday that his surgically repaired left knee has required a “few days” to bounce back between live batting-practice sessions, an issue that has slowed the frustrated reliever’s return to the Dodgers.
Hudson, who has been battling right-ankle tendinitis this spring, acknowledged that he will not pitch in Cactus League games and likely will remain in Arizona for extended spring training when the team breaks camp this weekend.
“We’re trying to evaluate it right now to see where we’re at,” said Hudson, who is expected to close games for the Dodgers. “We haven’t really made any decisions on what the next step is. We’re just trying to map some stuff out … on when I can get back into games.”
Hudson feels “pretty close to normal” when he throws off a mound, but “there have been days where I feel like a baby giraffe sometimes,” he said. “It just feels different trying to get my body used to moving the way it did. Sometimes it just doesn’t feel like it’s moving the right way. That’s one of the things that kind of makes you take a step back.”
How would Hudson, who went 2-3 with a 2.22 ERA and five saves in 25 games last season before tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his landing knee in June, describe his frustration level?
“It’s up there, but it is what it is,” Hudson said. “I wish I could say I was [ready for games], but it’s just going to take a little bit of time.”
Hudson’s slow progress this spring had made it impossible for the Dodgers to even set a timetable for his return, let alone predict a return date.
“I think there’s going to be a point where Huddy is going to get over the hump when he pitches against live hitters and he’s not going to feel anything,” manager Dave Roberts said before Monday night’s Cactus League game against the Colorado Rockies in Scottsdale, Ariz.
“Right now, every event he’s had, he just hasn’t felt great coming out of it. So to take on the grind of a major league season, he’s not about to put himself or the team in jeopardy. Whatever the time frame is, it will be. I’m feeling for him. I know he’s frustrated. But he will pitch meaningful innings for us at some point.”
David Peralta returns to camp, his ears still ringing from WBC
PHOENIX — Outfielder David Peralta returned to camp on Monday after having “the time of my life” at the World Baseball Classic, even though his Venezuelan team was eliminated by Team USA and Trea Turner’s eighth-inning grand slam in the quarterfinals on Saturday.
“I’ve never been a part of an All-Star Game — it’s always been my goal — but for me, this was my All-Star Game,” Peralta, 35, said. “I was playing with teammates who were superstars, playing against other teams with superstars. The atmosphere in Miami, it was crazy. I’m loud, and I couldn’t hear myself. That’s how loud it was.”
Peralta hit .357 (five for 14) with four RBIs in five WBC games on the artificial surface at LoanDepot Park, which he called a “good test” for his surgically repaired lower back. He felt like the intensity of the games and the electric atmosphere in the stadium will better prepare him for the season.
“I was getting goosebumps every day,” said the left-handed-hitting Peralta, who is expected to platoon in left field for the Dodgers. “It helped to get my timing. I was getting a lot of at-bats, playing full games, so my body feels ready to go for the season.
“The funny thing is when I was there, it felt like I was playing September baseball. Now, I have to reset my brain, like, ‘Hey, I’m back to spring training, David, be ready for the season. But I’m happy to be back here with the team.”
The highlight of the WBC, said Peralta, a native of Valencia, Venezuela, was playing for his country.
“I made my family proud,” said Peralta, who struck out, popped out and walked in Monday night’s Cactus League game against the Colorado Rockies. “All Venezuelans, they really need that special moment from us, and we did it. We didn’t reach our goal, but we did everything we could to make it happen. I’m going to keep my head up, because every time we stepped on the field we gave our 100% to represent our country.”
Julio Urias off Mexico’s WBC roster, but still with Team Mexico
MIAMI — Julio Urías, who started twice for Mexico in the World Baseball Classic, was removed from Team Mexico’s roster but he’ll remain with the squad in Miami.
He wasn’t going to pitch in the tournament again after starting Friday against Puerto Rico in a quarterfinal game Mexico won, 5-4.
Right-hander Roel Ramírez replaced Urías on the roster.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Urías will pitch in Friday’s Cactus League game against the Milwaukee Brewers, which would appear to line up the left-hander to start the March 30 regular-season opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Dodger Stadium.
Command problems likely will cost Jimmy Nelson an opening day roster spot
PHOENIX — Jimmy Nelson suffered through a second consecutive shoddy exhibition appearance Sunday, walking three batters, hitting one and throwing two wild pitches, increasing the likelihood of the veteran right-hander opening the season on the injured list.
Nelson, who signed a guaranteed $1.2-million major league contract in February after missing the 2022 season because of Tommy John surgery, threw 14 pitches, 13 of them balls, in a 6-3 loss to the Oakland Athletics at Camelback Ranch. He walked four of five batters against the Texas Rangers on Thursday.
“I had a good conversation with Jimmy on the bench, and I think the thing for me is, we’ve all got to be mindful that this guy hasn’t pitched in almost two years,” manager Dave Roberts said. “So there’s the structural part. He’s got a new arm. What was normal to him back then is not normal now.
Top pitching prospect Gavin Stone making a mark in first big-league camp
PHOENIX — Gavin Stone is making the most of his first big-league camp, and not just because the top pitching prospect has not yielded a run in 6 ⅔ innings of four Cactus League games, including a three-inning, three-hit, eight-strikeout effort in Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the Oakland Athletics at Camelback Ranch.
“He’s watched every single inning of every game at home,” manager Dave Roberts said. “For a young player, especially a pitcher, to just sit there and watch games on days he’s not participating is telling.”
Stone, the 6-foot-1, 175-pound right-hander who was named the organization’s minor league pitcher of the year in 2022, has also been soaking up everything he can in the clubhouse and weight room from veterans such as Clayton Kershaw, a three-time National League Cy Young Award winner.
Brusdar Graterol has the ‘best stuff on the planet.’ So why isn’t he a closer yet?
PHOENIX — The combination of nitro-fueled fastball and nickname doesn’t merely suggest that Dodgers reliever Brusdar Graterol has the makings of a big league closer. It screams it.
The burly right-hander has a nasty two-seam sinking fastball that averaged 99.8 mph with 20 inches of drop and 15 inches of left-to-right break last season and a four-seamer that averaged 99.4 mph and touched 102.5 mph.
“He’s got the best stuff on the planet,” Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia said.
And a moniker to match. Graterol’s Minnesota Twins teammates dubbed him “Bazooka” when he broke into the majors in 2019 because the ball seems to explode out of his hand as if shot from a rocket launcher.