Clayton Kershaw Update: Team Confirms Diagnosis ‘No More Serious Than Biceps Tendonitis’

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw can breathe a collective sigh of relief – for now. While not completely out of the woods yet, it appears that the diagnosis of Kershaw’s injury is as the team expected. Kershaw returned to Los Angeles yesterday and had an MRI conducted. The conclusion of that procedure was that Kershaw indeed is suffering from biceps tendonitis.

#Dodgers Clayton Kershaw underwent an MRI in LA today which confirmed the diagnosis of biceps tendinitis. No timetable for his return. (I hope you can see this from out on the ledge.)

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— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) May 7, 2018

Spirits were rightfully low on Sunday morning, when the team announced Kershaw was headed to the 10-day disabled list. The first thing most of us read after that was Kershaw would be visiting the doctor who had performed Corey Seager’s Tommy John surgery. Our minds all have the tendency to do the same thing. Many of us likely immediately thought of the worst possible outcome.

With no surgery date set for Kershaw, we can focus on his recovery. While there’s no set timetable for his return, he began his rehab program on Monday.

If you’re like me, you probably want to know more about biceps tendonitis. We have you covered with a thorough post at this link. Here is the take home message on rehabilitation steps we can expect Kershaw to take:

• Reduce Inflammation
• Work on Range of Motion/Flexibility
• Build Strength
• Functional Training (this would probably be resuming a throwing program).

My fears of not seeing Clayton Kershaw pitch again in 2018 have been put to rest, for now. There should be a small amount of renewed optimism in Dodger-land as we closely follow his recovery. The old adage is ‘you don’t know what you have until it’s gone’.  Suddenly it feels like with a healthy Kershaw, Rich Hill, Walker Buehler, and Alex Wood; the Dodgers could still make a run. There’s a lot of baseball left. Los Angeles needs their ace.

Analysis

A quick Google search will tell you that biceps tendonitis doesn’t always mean Tommy John Surgery.Cole Hamels and Jeff Locke are two examples of pitchers who had this injury but did not end up having surgery. They’re even both left-handed like Kershaw. It’s alright to be frustrated with the fact that Clayton Kershaw has just one win in 2018. However, this may offer some explanation for a lull in performance that we have seen to date. The Dodgers are better with Kershaw pitching every fifth day. If you were searching for positives, this bit of news is a good sign.