Retirement from professional baseball is coming for Clayton Kershaw. The Los Angeles Dodgers ace is the first to acknowledge it, and he hasn’t shied away from the topic when asked.
However, the farewell doesn’t necessarily have to come this season. Kershaw signed a one-year contract with the Dodgers to play the current campaign, but he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of adding another chapter to his illustrious MLB career.
“Every offseason (his wife) Ellen and I sit down and try to figure out next year,” Kershaw said in a recent interview with the “Almost Athletes With Dude Perfect” podcast, “Get through the season, figure out how everybody’s doing and how we’ll go from there. I’m sure we’ll do that again this offseason.”
The 37-year-old might still be undecided about retirement, but he has certainly thought about it a lot. In the same interview, he revealed that he already has (at least) three clear ideas about what he wants for his future outside of professional baseball.
First, regarding his commitment to Texas A&M in 2006 to return and earn his degree after ending his professional career, Kershaw made it clear that it is unlikely to happen.
“I don’t think so. I don’t know but I doubt it,” he said on the podcast. “I don’t think so.”
Second, as for a potential coaching career, Kershaw said that, if it happens, it won’t be for a few years. In the meantime, he’ll be busy with his third priority: spending time with his family.
“I think the coaching stuff is so hard because you have the same travel schedule as a player,” Kershaw said in the same interview. “At least for the first few years, whenever I finish up, I need to be home, man. I need to be home with the kiddos. … Especially we’ve got (child) number 5 coming in December.
“I’m going to be a great dad, be a stay-at-home dad for a while and love it, and then after a couple years we’ll see what happens. I don’t know,” he added.
At the moment, nothing in Kershaw’s performance reveals a player on the verge of retirement. In his 18th season with the Dodgers, the star left-hander has 10 wins and two losses in 20 games, with 71 strikeouts and a 3.53 ERA.
Kershaw has put together a career that will surely take him to the Hall of Fame. His career results include 222 wins, a 2.54 ERA, and 3,054 strikeouts. He is also a three-time NL Cy Young Award winner, the 2014 MVP Award winner, has played in 11 All-Star Games, and has two World Series rings.