'Way ahead of schedule': Kershaw throws sim game

LOS ANGELES -- Clayton Kershaw has taken the next step forward in his recovery from left shoulder surgery, throwing his first simulated game on Saturday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.

“It went OK,” said Kershaw. “I feel all right. Shoulder feels healthy, and now it’s just a matter of building the pitches back up and getting ready to go.”

Chris Taylor, Austin Barnes and No. 10 prospect Kendall George -- who made the trip from Single-A Rancho Cucamonga -- stood in against Kershaw in his inning of work. The three-time NL Cy Young Award winner threw 20 pitches, with his four-seamer touching 88 mph, according to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. Over the last three seasons, Kershaw’s fastball averaged 90.7 mph.

The buildup is going to be similar to Spring Training, with the plan being for Kershaw to add an inning every five or six days. Accordingly, he will next progress to a two-inning simulated game with Rancho Cucamonga while the Dodgers are out of town next week.

Coming off the first surgery of his career, Kershaw, 36, said he didn’t have a specific timeline for a return. However, Roberts said that an estimate of six weeks from now is “probably fair." That would have Kershaw being ready to rejoin the Dodgers right around the All-Star break -- just about in line with the most optimistic projections heading into the season.

“If you're looking at the progression of a pitcher doing his first day in Spring Training, the second day of pitchers and catchers, essentially, [is] doing a one-inning situation,” said Roberts. “So then you're talking about six weeks. But obviously with Clayton, we're all going to kind of read and react. But I think there's still going to be a consistent process.”

The Dodgers already have one of baseball’s better rotations, entering Saturday ranked sixth in the Majors with a combined 3.42 ERA. Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Gavin Stone and James Paxton have been largely excellent, while Walker Buehler is continuing to settle in after returning from a second Tommy John surgery. The club has used spot starters and bullpen games as a means of routinely getting its starters additional days of rest, and is likely to get Bobby Miller back in the next few weeks, which will also help with that strategy.

Kershaw, a 10-time All-Star and MLB’s active ERA leader, is well on his way to entering the mix himself. It’ll be a late start to the 17th season of his likely first-ballot Hall of Fame career, but all things considered, he’s on track to be back somewhat sooner than expected.

“Right now, we're way ahead of schedule,” said Roberts. “So I think that's really encouraging. … Every event that happens, [we’ll] just continue to move forward and build on the positive.”