Clayton Kershaw finished his playing career with the Los Angeles Dodgers after 18 seasons that included a plethora of accolades and three World Series championships.
One of Kershaw’s most impressive accomplishments was joining the 3,000-strikeout club, which he did in a start against the Chicago White Sox on July 2, 2025.
Kershaw became the 20th pitcher in MLB history and just the fourth left-hander to reach 3,000 career strikeouts. It’s a milestone that many baseball pundits believe will never be achieved again due to the changing nature of the game.
During an appearance on “Literally! with Rob Lowe,” Kershaw expressed hope that starting pitchers will be valued in the same way they were decades ago:
“I think it’s going back. I feel it. As a fan of the game, I love watching baseball. I’ve always loved baseball. I love the game. I just love it. When you see the full slate of games, the first thing you do is, ‘Well, who’s the starting pitchers?’ If you see Skubal versus Crochet, or Skubal versus Skenes, or Skenes versus Cristopher Sánchez, ‘Oh, I want to watch that. I want to see that matchup.’ It’s no disrespect to bullpen arms, because they’re unbelievable and that’s why we’re using them more, is because they’re so good. But at the end of the day, having those starting pitcher matchups is what’s so fun.”
“I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to that. But hopefully having starters 110, 120 pitches, seven or eight innings, going every fifth day, hopefully we get back to that. Then you’ll have more guys throwing 200-plus innings and maybe you’ll see the more wins, which I know wins don’t matter, but it still feels good to see a win by your name. Maybe you get another guy with 3,000 strikeouts if we kind of go back to that.”
Baseball has shifted away from the days of starting pitchers throwing at least six innings in favor of teams going to their bullpen much earlier. Clubs also exercise more caution with their starters and prefer to give them more days of rest in between outings.
As a result, it is becoming less common for pitchers to reach 200 innings and 20 wins in a season. However, the game still has a few pitchers who are capable of reaching those thresholds such as Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Kershaw isn’t the only major baseball figure to speak out about reduced roles for starting pitchers. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said last year that he was considering a minimum innings requirement for starters in order to restore the prestige that was once associated with the role.
While that may be difficult to enforce, Manfred hinted that incentives could be worked into the next collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for starting pitchers going deeper into starts.
Dodgers send special messages to Clayton Kershaw
On the final day of 2025, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and more Dodgers players shared heartfelt messages to Kershaw as he prepares for his next chapter after baseball.
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