When Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and basic supervisor Brandon Gomes met with the media on Tuesday, there have been loads of questions they didn’t but have a solution for. Being thrust into the offseason a lot prior to anticipated, they haven’t but spent a lot time fascinated with the futures of Cody Bellinger, who could be non-tendered, and Justin Turner, who has a $16 million team option and is coming off his worst season with L.A.
One factor Friedman did have a straightforward reply for was Clayton Kershaw:
“My robust hope is that Clayton Kershaw is pitching right here subsequent 12 months.”
This isn’t information. Friedman has stated earlier than that he wants Kershaw to spend his entire career in Dodger Blue.
Kershaw, for his half, has stated he’s leaning in the direction of taking part in subsequent 12 months, saying after the season-ending sport on Saturday:
“Yeah I feel so, however — no buts, I feel so. We’ll see what occurs. Going residence and being round and being a full-time dad adjustments your perspective on issues. However as of proper now, I might say I’ll play once more.”
Final 12 months, Kershaw was in the same boat, hitting free company with three foremost choices: come again to L.A., go residence to Texas to play with the Rangers, or go residence to Texas in retirement. Those self same choices are round this 12 months, with one main distinction: Kershaw isn’t coming off a career-threatening elbow injury this time.
Final 12 months, the Dodgers bent over backwards for Kershaw, even going as far as to not make him a qualifying offer out of respect for him and his household. The lockout got here at an opportune time for Kersh, giving him just a few further months to get well from the damage and work out what he needed to do with out affecting L.A.’s capacity to plan for 2022.
This 12 months, there can be no lockout, and the Dodgers can be diving headfirst into the offseason, figuring to be energetic on each the free agent and commerce markets. All of which suggests, they’ll’t actually afford to have Kershaw wait till March to make his choice. They’ve questions of their beginning rotation, and they should know if he would be the reply to a kind of questions.
Friedman isn’t going to place strain on Kershaw, but it surely appears doubtless that he’ll discover a approach to convey to him the urgency of the scenario. With the early postseason exit, Kersh may have just a few weeks of “full-time dad” beneath his belt earlier than free company formally begins, which could assist him determine extra rapidly.
Hopefully, Kershaw can be again, and hopefully he’ll make that call early within the offseason.
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