The Los Angeles Dodgers are creeping, albeit slowly, toward getting back pitcher Clayton Kershaw from injury.

A three-time NL Cy Young winner and the 2014 league MVP, Kershaw has barely played since undergoing shoulder surgery in November 2023. However, it appears Kershaw is getting closer to returning to MLB after an injury-riddled season in 2024.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters Monday that Kershaw will be making his first rehab start on Wednesday as part of a 30-day rehab assignment. Kershaw will play for the Dodgers' Triple-A affiliate, the Oklahoma City Comets, in hopes of getting back up to speed before he is eligible to be removed from the 60-day injured list.

As a result of multiple offseason surgeries, Kershaw has been on the IL since the season began and is eligible to return on May 17, days after the 30-day rehab assignment would come to a close.

Kershaw, who has averaged 190 innings pitched over the first 12 years of his MLB career, has not pitched more than 132 innings in a single season since 2019. The 2024 season was, by far, his worst in terms of availability, though.

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After undergoing offseason surgery to repair his throwing shoulder after the 2023 season, Kershaw missed the first three-plus months of 2024 while rehabbing. Unfortunately, his return would prove to be brief, as he started just seven games before picking up other injuries, ending his season.

Following the Dodgers' World Series victory, Kershaw went under the knife again. This time, the procedures were done to repair the meniscus in his left knee and a ruptured plantar plate and a bone spur, the latter of which caused him to go on the IL in August and ultimately end his season.

When healthy, Kershaw has proven to be one of the greatest MLB pitchers in history. The career-long Dodger has won three Cy Young Awards (2011, 2013, and 2014), which is tied for the fifth-most in MLB history, and was named the NL MVP in 2014, which made him the first NL pitcher to earn the honor since Bob Gibson in 1968. Additionally, he is the most recent full-time pitcher to win MVP in either league.

Kershaw and the Comets are set to host the Tacoma Rainiers on Wednesday.