Since making his MLB debut at the age of 20 in 2008, Clayton Kershaw has become the face of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The left-hander has finished in the top five in the National League Cy Young voting in each of the last seven seasons, winning the award three times in addition to winning NL MVP in 2014.
Going into his 11th Major League season in 2018, there will be a cloud hovering over Kershaw and the Dodgers for much of the year because he has the ability to opt out of his contract and become a free agent this winter.
Dodgers owner Mark Walter has made it clear that they would like Kershaw to remain with the organization, telling Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball that he wants Kershaw to be a Dodger for the entirety of his career:
“He’s a Dodger,” Walter told FanRag Sports before the Dodgers’ spring training game against the rival Diamondbacks. “He should be a Dodger for life.”
After saying he “absolutely” wanted Kershaw to remain with the team, Walter summed up his feelings this way:
“I couldn’t possibly say anything that hasn’t been said about Clayton Kershaw – He’s something special.”
Last April, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman called keeping Kershaw in the organization for the entirety of his career a ‘great goal.’
Both Kershaw and the Dodgers front office recently said they are having ‘good communication’ with respect to the opt-out clause in his contract.
It’s unlikely that any sort of extension gets done before the start of this season, but the Dodgers have made it clear on multiple occasions that they will do whatever it takes to keep Kershaw with the franchise.
Kershaw will be 30 at the end of this season, and while Friedman has been hesitant to give long-term contracts to pitchers north of 30 years old, such as, Zack Greinke and Yu Darvish, Kershaw would be the one guy that they make that exception for.
