Los Angeles Dodgers hurler Clayton Kershaw is safe now. He won’t suffer another agonizing playoff defeat at the hands of the Cardinals.
On Thursday he announced his plans to retire after this season. “We’ve talked about it a lot,” he told reporters. “I’m at peace with it. I think it’s the right time.
“I’m really not sad. I’m really not. I’m really at peace with this. It’s just emotional. I tried to hold it together. I told our guys not to make it weird today because I was going to get weird if you make it weird. And here I am, making it weird.”
The Dodgers will return to the postseason this fall, but barring an unimaginable sequence of events, the Cardinals will miss the playoffs again.
So while Kershaw may be forever haunted by Matt Adams flashbacks, he will head into the sunset without adding to his nightmarish memories involving the Birds on Bat.
(The Cardinals helped Kershaw relive the Adams homer, which decided the 2014 National League Division Series, by replaying it over and over on the video screen when the Dodgers visited Busch Stadium earlier this year. “I think it’s a little bush league, but I don’t expect anything less from these guys,” Kershaw sniffed. “So, it’s no worries.”)
Kershaw is one of the greatest competitors of his era, so Tipsheet will be glad to see him exit the game on his own terms.
“I think he’s the greatest pitcher in this generation,” manager Dave Roberts said Thursday. “There’s obviously a lot of great pitchers. I’ve just never been around a greater competitor. Very accountable, very consistent. He’s made me better. And I think that we have grown together, so I feel fortunate to have been able to manage him and be around him for 10 years. He’s earned this right to walk away at his choosing.
“He’s only known being the best. And I think that as Father Time kind of gets everyone, I think that’s something where — just to hang on is not something he wants to sign up for. But I just think it’s time. I think it’s time for his family and the next chapter of his life.”
Here is what folks are writing about Kershaw’s retirement:
Sonja Chen, MLB.com: “Kershaw kept quiet about his plans beyond this season. He was a stabilizing force for the Dodgers’ rotation as the unit returned to full health, going 10-2 with a 3.53 ERA through his first 20 starts. Regardless of the role he might serve on a postseason roster, he has been an integral piece as his team seeks to defend its World Series title. It has been the type of season where if Kershaw had decided that he wanted to keep going, the game wouldn’t be pushing him out. Instead, Kershaw is making the choice to hang ’em up after 18 years in the big leagues. He’ll have more time to spend with his wife, Ellen, and their four children — plus a fifth on the way. Out of all the accolades Kershaw has earned in his decorated career, retiring with the team that drafted and developed him might just be the thing that truly sets him apart from every other great pitcher of his generation.”
Andy McCullough, The Athletic: “He will get a chance to soak in the adulation at Dodger Stadium one more time when he starts on Friday night, and he and the Dodgers could capture their third championship together this October. For both a player and a fan base, it is hard to script a better goodbye. Kershaw, 37, has been openly flirting with retirement since the Dodgers won the World Series in 2020. The championship checked the final box on his resume for the Hall of Fame: Three National League Cy Young Awards, an MVP award in 2014 and 11 All-Star appearances. He had a valedictory go-round at the Midsummer Classic back in July, but he did not limp across the finish line. When he takes the mound on Friday, it will be with a 3.53 ERA and a 10-2 record in 20 starts. His status in the postseason remains unclear, with the Dodgers likely to favor Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow over him in the starting rotation. Yet his place in franchise lore is unquestionable. After 18 seasons in Los Angeles, dominating opponents, risking his health and operating as a clubhouse centrifuge, Kershaw will leave the Dodgers with at least 220 wins and a franchise record 3,039 strikeouts. Only Don Sutton won more games as a Dodger. His 2.54 ERA is the lowest among starting pitchers in the live-ball era. His 154 ERA+ ties Kershaw with Pedro Martinez for the best ever among starters.”
Tom Verducci, SI.com: “It was not that herky-jerky, stop-and-start delivery, in which he mimed a man trying to step over a curbside puddle, only to change his mind midway, then resume the quest. It wasn’t that backfoot slider that was Finnegan’s Wake to right-handed hitters—no matter how many times they read it they still could not figure it out. It wasn’t the 222–96 record, the three Cy Young Awards, the three strikeout titles, the five ERA titles or the MVP Award. It was a ferocious, almost maniacal will to compete. Kershaw, one of the great competitors of his generation, is leaving the arena by his own choice, the best way to go out. He announced Thursday that he will retire after this season, literally taking it to the house to be with his wife, Ellen, and their four children, with a fifth due in December. He will take the ball at Dodger Stadium Friday night in what could be his final appearance there, where he became as much of a fixture as the golden light at sunset on the San Gabriels. Nobody ever struck out more batters in any ballpark than Kershaw did at Dodger Stadium (1,645), having surpassed Steve Carlton’s total at the Vet in Philadelphia (1,615) earlier this year.”
Matt Snyder, CBSSports.com: “In a matter of weeks, the career of Clayton Kershaw and the more distance we get from it, the more we’ll start looking back with fondness at getting to witness one of the greatest pitchers to ever set foot on a mound or, in excellent baseball parlance, toe the slab. No matter which way we approach his level of greatness, the Dodgers legend clears the Hall of Fame threshold with ease and will fly in with well over 90% of the vote on his first ballot in five years. In fact, make that 95%. Or 98%. I don’t know exactly, but I’m confident he’ll be close to 100%. That level of respect is well-deserved for anyone who witnessed his career and has and even rudimentary understanding of what constitutes a Baseball Hall of Famer. A lot of times when a great player retires, I’ll discuss the merits of his Hall of Fame candidacy. In the case of Kershaw, he’s one of those where we don’t need to discuss ‘if’ he is but instead skip right to the part where we examine just how high on the totem pole of greatest players ever he sits. We can start with this: If someone asks you who the greatest pitcher of this current century was/is, there’s an easy and obvious Big Three and that would be Kershaw, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer.”
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE
Questions to ponder while wondering how many more pitchers will reach the 200-victory plateau in baseball history:
Is Dylan Carlson running out of major league opportunity at the age of 26?
Has Lars Nootbaar hit his ceiling?
Can the Rockies dig deep and reach the 120-loss plateau this season?
MEGAPHONE
“Every day you come to the field for four months, and it’s like, ‘What’s the way out of this?’ How do I make the adjustment? What do I need to do? What’s wrong? Because clearly something’s wrong. I just have to try to find it. I had a new thought in the bullpen, I took that into the game, and the game results have been what you see. So I’m glad I didn’t give up.”
San Francisco Giants pitcher Justin Verlander, on his turning his season around.
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Jeff Gordon | Post-Dispatch
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