LOS ANGELES — The question amuses Clayton Kershaw.
What is still driving you to do this?
There is little left for Kershaw to accomplish. He’s laid claim to three Cy Young Awards. He’s helped finally bring a parade back to Los Angeles for the Dodgers. That leaves nothing else to prove before he waltzes into Cooperstown. In that framework, it’s fair to wonder what could possibly be left to drive Kershaw back to the mound.
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He returns on Saturday for his first start since Aug. 30. Kershaw will face the Angels with a surgically-repaired toe and knee while trying to see what’s left in his surgically-repaired left shoulder.
So, why keep going?
“I don’t really understand that question,” Kershaw said Friday, a day before returning to the Dodgers for an 18th season. “People ask me that. Why not just ride off into the sunset? I’m 37. I have a long time ahead of me. Baseball is fun. So why not? As of today, that’s my answer, yeah.”
Kershaw arrived at that answer quickly last October, before he and his teammates rallied from a five-run deficit in Game 5 to win the World Series for the second time in five years. During the champagne celebration, Kershaw’s voice was hoarse and his eyes were red with emotion when he laid out his plans to return and pitch after having to watch the Dodgers’ run from the dugout.
Clayton Kershaw didn’t top 90 mph during his five rehab outings and relied instead on limiting opponents to soft contact. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA Today)
Kershaw was on an operating table within days of the parade, undergoing surgery to address bone spurs, arthritis and a ruptured plantar plate in his left foot that Kershaw said only a handful of big-league pitchers have had to come back from. That, along with surgery to repair a torn left meniscus, created a difficult path for Kershaw to extend the longest tenure ever for a Dodgers pitcher.
He came back from shoulder surgery last year and made seven starts (with a 4.50 ERA) before his toe became too much to continue pitching through.
“Nobody wants to just sit around,” Kershaw said. “I want to pitch, and contribute, and be a part of it. Last year was difficult. Obviously fun to at least be a part of it and see us win and things like that. You always want to be a part of a great team. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
Pitching again “felt far away” until about a month ago, Kershaw said, as he worked through a still-painful toe and started a rehab assignment.
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“But the last month or so, I really feel like I’ve been able to focus more on pitching and less about how I felt physically,” Kershaw said. “So that’s a good place to be.”
The stuff has ticked up, and the toe has felt better the more he’s pitched, though he still requires maintenance on the digit on a regular basis. He didn’t top 90 mph during his rehab, down even from where his reduced velocity has been in the past. He’s relied more on soft contact through each of his five outings. The Dodgers are encouraged, nonetheless, because it’s still Clayton Kershaw.
Kershaw is not a luxury item, but a valuable depth piece for a pitching staff that has already been whittled down by injury through the season’s first month and a half. Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki are all on the injured list with shoulder trouble. The Dodgers have slow-played Shohei Ohtani’s recovery from a second major elbow ligament reconstruction.
Kershaw’s presence matters.
“I’m excited for the intensity,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We’re a quarter of the way through the season. I’m envisioning a shot in the arm of emotion, of intensity. We’re not at the dog days. I don’t really believe in dog days, but I do believe in a player like Clayton, his track record, raising the level of performance and intensity of a ballclub. That’s what I’m expecting tomorrow and going forward.”
It’s not hard to see why the Dodgers need Kershaw far more than maybe even they anticipated they would in 2025. And maybe Roberts has the most straightforward answer as to why Kershaw is back for more.
“I’ve never even been on the Hall of Fame track,” Roberts said. “But the superstar players that I have been around, there’s always something that fuels them, and they need that. And so him not being a part of that last year, I know that that’s fueling him coming up to tomorrow and then going forward to make sure he sees this thing through.”
(Photo of Clayton Kershaw from Wednesday: Harry How / Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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