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Of all that the Los Angeles Dodgers have – some good players, some smart people, a nice baseball field, a decent band of almost all, the west of the NL – what they have the best and the best bigger is money, and I'm just talking about that. Clayton Kershaw and tomorrow.
Kershaw had until Friday afternoon – Chavez Ravine time – to withdraw from the remaining two years and for $ 65 million from a $ 215 million contract over seven years, the second-largest ever assigned to a launcher.
He chose to remain a Dodger for $ 93 million over three years, sources told Yahoo Sports on Friday afternoon, an appropriate conclusion for everyone involved.
"Honestly, I wanted to stay here," Kershaw said later Friday. "Financial and all set aside, it was more valuable for me to be here."
He cited the recent custom of the Dodgers to win baseball games, if not the last. He also added, "Kids love it here. Ellen likes it here, "meaning her two children – Cali and Charley – and his wife.
He is either the best pitcher in the history of the franchise, or close enough, in the first two or three, and he is also 30 years old. He also suffered from recent and temporary physical breakdowns and, if you like speed, he also suffered there. So the conversation in Los Angeles and elsewhere focused on Clayton Kershaw and tomorrow, on how the two are going to hear, with or without the Dodgers, with all those miles on that otherwise incomparable arm.
The initial decision – to stay, to become a free agent and to stay, to become a free agent and to leave – would be to Kershaw. The role of the Dodgers would be to measure the value of Kershaw for the team and the city, for yesterday and today, and to take a reasonable and enlightened guess for tomorrow, and write how many dollars this is in an extension of contract. or a new business.
The details of Friday's agreement reflect all this: the contract has a duration of several years and an annual value. This is a reasonable compromise in a moment of uncertainty for both the club and Kershaw, as well as what the market could support for Kershaw.
The pitchers on the other side of 30 are notoriously uncertain proposals. The elbows and shoulders and, in this case, the back and the rest of the rooms are lucky to achieve it. The pitchers with fast balls discolored on the other side of the 30, which makes just about everything, have to try their luck in a form of reinvention, redefinition of priorities, acquisition of skill. Otherwise, they are bat barrels for you, friends and at the back of the rotation.
We do not know for tomorrow, most of the time. What you can know, however, is the person who strives to achieve it, the person you can rely on, the person you know better than anyone else. He counted this as another reason to remain a Dodger, being the predominant notion that he slipped, which clearly thwarted him. Others who also pocketed innings – Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer were the two that he named – remain at the top of their matches.
"It gives me a chance to prove that a lot of people are wrong," he said. "A lot of people say I'm in decline.
"I have some ideas on what I could possibly do to improve that. But in the end, it's just getting people on the ground. "
I'll bet on Clayton Kershaw. The Dodgers are not rogues of small markets that would be in fourth place for a decade if they were wrong. They were right to bet on him too. Kershaw has long become their best and most recognizable player, then their competitive conscience. These are the types of pitchers / teammates / members of a community ball club who can only believe and risk a little bit of themselves. There is no absolute. There are simply moments to believe. Or not.
Kershaw was selected by the Dodgers for seventh overall in 2006, coming from Highland Park High School near Dallas. He made his league debut two years later, two months after his twentieth birthday. In 2011, he won the first of three Cy Young Awards, including in 2014, while he was also the most valuable player in the National League. He led the league with three wins, five ERAs and three shootouts. He was second in Cy Young's league of votes in 2017, and in 2018, for the third consecutive season in which he lost at least five starts due to back injuries or ailments, his ERA was 2 , 73, fourth in Newfoundland. throwers with at least 160 rounds.
All of this deserves mention, because Kershaw's speed has been reduced and his playoff record has been uneven – 2018 has resulted in some remarkable and memorable starts – has sparked debates over the launcher Kershaw may be in the second half of his career.
He is, in addition to being the most decorated pitcher of his generation, among the most used. In 11 seasons, including eight until October, Kershaw made 340 starts. He launched 2,248 1/3 inning. He is 11th among active pitchers in the regular season heats (2,096) and at least two years younger than the 10 pitchers ahead. Of these, only Justin Verlander and Jon Lester come close to Kershaw's October work over the past decade.
In 2018, in 26 starts, he recorded 161 1/3 innings, he has seen declines in areas such as hits, withdrawals on catches and steps in nine innings to go with a fastball who had lost three ticks since his peak. Kershaw does not freely discuss his injuries. Therefore, it is unclear to what extent a shoulder and back injury – he missed most of the month of May, made a start and three more weeks – could have influenced his fast ball speed. And, if that was the case, there is an off-season solution to that. Then, if it's his fastball, is it important? Again, his ERA was under 3, and was actually 2.45 before giving 8 points in 11 innings in his last two regular season starts.
Big fast ball or not, back pain or no, on the other side of the 30 or less, Kershaw remained an elite pitcher, if not the best pitcher of the baseball, the standard he had imposed for almost all the decade. What this means for tomorrow is not a certainty. He will not be – can not be – him forever. But still a few years? A couple more?
May be.
We will know tomorrow.
Kershaw said he had accepted a three-year contract because he thought he had at least that in him and at the level he had set for a decade.
"I would never want to sign something that I could not live up to," he said. "We'll see where we are after three years."
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