Dodgers fans enjoyed the clubs annual FanFest today, and among the festivities were comments from GM as well as several players. In addition to providing a handful of injury updates, Gomes discu sed the future of longtime franchise face and generational hurler during the event. As relayed by , Gomes told reporters that the door remains open for Kershaw to return to the only club hes known throughout his illustrious 18-season profe sional career even after the Dodgers have spent the offseason completely retooling their rotation mix with the additions of right-handers and as well as the more recent pickup of veteran southpaw . Kershaw has long been expected to choose between either staying with the Dodgers or joining his hometown Rangers on the heels of the first World Series championship in franchise history, with indicating that the expectation is that hell eventually sign a two-year deal with one of the two clubs. We continue to stay in touch with Clayton, Gomes said (as relayed by ), and well progre s. Kershaw, of course, is among the greatest starters in MLB history. The southpaw has ten All Star appearances, three Cy Young awards, and an MVP award on his mantel and is just 66 batters set down away from 3,000 career strikeouts. Dominant as hes been throughout his entire career, its worth noting that the lefty battled through injury in the second half last year. While he managed a sterling 2.23 ERA in that time, he struck out just 22.2% of batters faced in his final eight starts of the regular season while i suing free pa ses at an uncharacteristic 11.1% clip and never throwing more than 66 pitches during a start. The leftys 2023 season came to a close with a disastrous performance in Game 1 of the NLDS where he allowed six runs while recording just one out. Shortly after the season wrapped up, Kershaw that he had undergone surgery on the gleno-humeral ligaments and capsule of his left shoulder. At the time, Kershaw said that he hoped to return sometime during the summer of 2024 before indicating back in December that his recovery proce s was going While there have been no updates to the contrary to this point, recently offered a more specific timeline for Kershaws return to the mound, reporting that Levi Stoudt Jersey the lefty isnt expected to pitch in the majors until at least August. That timeline is on the later end of the summer estimate provided at the time of Kershaws surgery, but would still give the lefty ample time to gear up for another crack at the postseason. Given Kershaws lengthy timeline for return, its not nece sarily surprising that neither side appears to have much urgency in putting pen to paper. that the Dodgers will be able to put players who expected to mi s at least the first two months of the season onto the 60-day IL, thus opening up their 40-man roster spot for the duration of their injury, starting on February 8. With that date le s than a week away, its hard to imagine Kershaw being officially added to the roster- and thus requiring a corresponding 40-man move- before then, though its certainly po sible Kershaws free agency could extend well beyond that date as well. Setting aside Kershaw, Gomes made note of one hurler already under contract whos poised to start the season on the shelf: right-hander . The GM noted ( ) that Buehlers return to a major league mound for the first time since June of 2022 will be slow-played, with both Gomes himself and ( ) manager Dave Roberts indicating that the righty is likely to start his 2024 campaign late. With that being said, Gomes makes clear that Buehler is not currently a candidate to start the season on the 60-day IL, indicating the club could stand to welcome Buehler back into the rotation mix fairly early into the 2024 campaign. That the club might look to delay Buehlers start to the season is hardly a surprise, given from Gomes noting that the Dodgers would be on a flexible innings limit of some sort throughout the year with an eye toward ensuring hes available for the stretch run and a potential postseason push. Its understandable that the Dodgers would place a premium on ensuring Buehler is healthy, as the right-hander was among the best starting pitchers in the league from 2018 to 2021, when he posted an excellent 2.82 ERA and 3.16 FIP acro s 564 innings of work. In the meantime, Buehlers absence at the start of the season figures to open up a spot in the clubs Opening Day rotation alongside Yamamoto, Glasnow, Paxton, and sophomore righty for one of the clubs young arms such as or . In terms of more positive injury updates, Gomes told reporters (including ) that infielder is fully ready for Spring Training after mi sing the entire 2023 campaign due to a torn ACL suffered last February, while superstar slugger has begun hitting although he has yet to resume throwing after undergoing elbow surgery back in September. adds that Ohtani himself told reporters that he is very confident hell be in the lineup on Opening Day, setting the stage for the international superstar to appear in the clubs March 20 game against the Padres in South Korea. DiGiovanna also notes that Gomes expre sed optimism regarding veteran right-hander , who the GM said is trending towards a return after mi sing the entire 2023 campaign and throwing just five innings during the 2022 season. Treinen sports a sterling 2.49 ERA and 3.12 FIP in 229 appearances dating back to the 2018 season, and figures to be a key piece of the clubs bullpen if he manages to make a healthy return to the mound. That being said, the potential return of Treinen hasnt stopped the Dodgers from this winter. Samad Taylor Jersey