The Los Angeles Dodgers have suddenly become baseball's new Evil Empire this offseason, but in case you thought they might finally rest on their laurels... well, complacency is the destroyer of dynasties, after all.
Purely in terms of starting pitching, they've added Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki to a rotation that already featured Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow. Tony Gonsolin (2022 All-Star) and Dustin May (former top prospect) are both in line to return after missing the 2024 season due to injury. On top of all that, they've also got Bobby Miller, Justin Wrobleski, Landon Knack and Ben Casparius waiting in wings as young arms with oodles of talent.
And, of course, Shohei Ohtani is nearing his return to the mound after sticking to a designated hitter-only role in 2024 while recovering from Tommy John surgery.
You might think that would be enough. All those All-Stars, all that young talent should be enough for one franchise, right?
Wrong! Clayton Kershaw, one of the best pitchers of his generation, is apparently a "lock" to re-sign with the Dodgers at some point this offseason.
Dodgers, Clayton Kershaw Still Interested In Reunion https://t.co/AjYVuRunwy pic.twitter.com/W15nA4wlnG
— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) January 23, 2025
Kershaw, who turns 37 in March, is recovering from a surgery to repair a torn meniscus that he suffered in late August.
He declined a player option earlier this offseason and has been progressing through the latter half of his career on a year-by-year basis. Expect him to sign a one-year deal with the Dodgers when he feels healthy enough to return.
Clayton Kershaw being depth proves just how loaded Dodgers are
Once everyone is healthy (if that happens at the same time), Los Angeles's starting rotation should look something like this:
1) Shohei Ohtani
2) Yoshinobu Yamamoto
3) Blake Snell
4) Tyler Glasnow
5) Roki Sasaki
6) Clayton Kershaw
7) Tony Gonsolin
8) Dustin May
9) Bobby Miller
I don't need to tell you how ridiculous that is. Yes, that rotation is as injury prone as it is talented, but come on. Having three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw as your No. 6 starter is about as unfair as baseball gets.
Now, it is worth noting that Kershaw isn't quite the same pitcher who dominated the mid-2010s with unrivaled success. He threw just 30.0 innings last season, by far the fewest in his career. His ERA of 4.50 was also the highest mark of his career and two full runs above his career average.
However, the legendary southpaw was an All-Star as recently as 2023, when he logged a 2.46 ERA (4.03 FIP) and 137 strikeouts in 131 2/3 innings. He hasn't completed more than 150 innings in a season since 2019, but 2024 was the first time (save for the 2020 pandemic-shortened season) in his career that he fell short of 100 IP.
Notably, Kershaw is just 32 strikeouts away from 3,000. He surely wants to get there, and it'll certainly be in a Dodgers uniform after he declared himself a "Dodger for life" following the team's 2024 World Series triumph. He's already told reporters that he expects to return for his 18th season with the team in 2025.
He's obviously closer to the end of his career than the beginning of it, but Kershaw is a brilliant pitcher and a Los Angeles institution. Retaining him will only make the Dodgers even more of an enemy in the eyes of the public, but it would simply be wrong to see him pitch in any other uniform.