After a 2024 season was that was largely lost, some unsolicited advice for the returning legend: take care and leave nothing to chance.
For the second consecutive year, this offseason has been a delight, a gluttonous feast of the senses. As it reaches its final days, let us review the unfinished business that the Dodgers still have to complete before going to Tokyo.
The Lion that was
Clayton Kershaw will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer five years after he retires from baseball. There have been days during the past five years when I have had to remind myself of that fact and days when it felt like summer just would not end.
When the Dodgers announced that Kershaw was done for the year last fall, it was unclear whether he would retire. The Dodgers’ World Series victory put an end to that question right quick. The ebullience and joy in Kershaw after the World Series parade was clear. The most apt description of Kershaw’s mood was akin to receiving a gift that you truly did not know that you absolutely needed.
For Kershaw, that gift was his second ring and the adulation of the city of Los Angeles.
Around this time last year, I was taken aback by the elation and joy expressed here at True Blue LA when I learned that Kershaw was coming back. In contrast to now, after how things ended in 2023, the dance felt different. At this point, rehashing the end of Kershaw’s 2023 feels reductive, but considering where we are, it is important for context.
After the 2023 NLDS, no one would have blamed Kershaw if he had shrugged his good shoulder and walked away from baseball to devote himself to being a faith and family man.
After reading Andy McCullough’s biography The Last of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness, I realized that Kershaw had the same doubts and thoughts about the 2023 team that we all did. He had the same questions we all had when he got lit up in the postseason: what is he still doing here?
Before the World Series win, it felt like Kershaw was living on the wisps of borrowed time.
No longer.
In case anyone forgot, Kershaw had shoulder surgery and was out of commission until July 2024. Specifically, he had surgery to repair the glenohumeral ligaments of his throwing shoulder, which help with stability and rotation.
Grey’s Anatomy, pg. 316, 1918, digitized to the Internet Archive with funding from Brigham Young University, 2011
Even knowing all that information, with Kershaw coming back, anyone who thought he would parachute back and be vintage Kershaw was mistaken. The simple fact remained that there was a lot of mileage on his arm.
Sadly, those fears played out. In 2024, Kershaw returned, and while the shoulder was fine, a bone spur in his left big toe knocked Kershaw out after seven starts. I was present for the best start of his abbreviated 2024 in St. Louis.
Why I stayed. One last rodeo. pic.twitter.com/4ecoWSvGvh
— Eli and Adric (@Eli_at_TBLA) August 18, 2024
Kershaw tried to grit his way through the toe injury, which did not work. Bone spurs are commonly caused by age-related wear and tear. Surgery is often the last resort to fix the issue. Kershaw had surgeries on his left foot and on the meniscus of his left knee in November, ensuring he would likely start any 2025 campaign on the injured list.
After reading McCullough’s Kershaw biography, this essay took on a different dimension. The overly long title aside, I would recommend the book if only to get a glimpse into Kershaw’s mind. He is a fierce competitor who endured awful handling from Don Mattingly, driven by internal forces to be a fearsome, if gruff, competitor.
The lion that is now
I can understand why Kershaw did what he did, considering how much of a competitor McCullough’s book described Kershaw to be. Kershaw is projected to return to the mound at the age of 37. In contrast, my younger brother, a high school math teacher who is married with three children, is going to turn 38 in March.
Like my brother, we both make sounds when we get up now, so I understand the fierce urgency of now. Accordingly, my mind drifted back to a scene in Moneyball, in which Brad Pitt as Billy Beane, talks about expectations to Stephen Bishop, as 37-year-old David Justice.
At this point, no one should expect Kershaw to carry a significant load for the rotation. Accordingly, all parties involved should be trying to squeeze the last bit of viable baseball out of Kershaw. His place in Cooperstown is assured, and this ride from here on is paid for by house money.
I imagine Kershaw is trying to keep the sun up for just one more day.
No one is guaranteed a tomorrow, as time is ultimately undefeated. Given the ebullience of the past two offseasons, one would be forgiven for forgetting about Kershaw, even for a moment.
That fact is okay, and it shows that the Dodgers’ era of relying on Kershaw to be the primary ace of the staff is long over. It is now the Voltron era, where the Dodgers get to bully the league on and off the field through skill and the culmination of years of planning.
As Kershaw ended up with his second ring, he had the rarest opportunity to sculpt the perfect exit. Yes, Kershaw was largely a spectator in 2024, but a ring is a ring. Yes, Kershaw opted out of his current deal, publicly proclaiming that he was going to be a Dodger for the rest of his career.
Still, I doubt anyone can fault Kershaw for coming back for one potential last ride with the roster that has been built over the past couple of years.
As Kershaw is returning this spring, I am reminded of one of “my” mottos: if something is worth doing, it’s worth overdoing. Accordingly, the only advice I would give is to double-check everything.
In his career, Kershaw has been infamously taciturn about injuries.
Kershaw likely has his share of aches and pains as a professional athlete nearing the end of his career. However, there is no need to keep the training staff from being informed of any new pains or aches. I am not expecting Dustin May-level shenanigans, but there is no valor in trying to grit anything out now.
At this point, all there is to do is await the day that Kershaw retakes the mound and returns to active play. Based on my experiences watching Kershaw at the end of 2023 and how loud away crowds became, thinking it might be the end, I can only imagine the roar that will arise at Dodger Stadium once Kershaw retakes the mound in 2025.
Maybe I am being a bit romantic, but since Kershaw is on his way back, I envision him taking on a role similar to 1996 David Cone of the Yankees, who essentially parachuted in to help the Yankees win a title that year. Kershaw needs to saunter in and appear when he can during the summer and fall before stepping on the grand stage for what may or may not be the last time.
As it stands now, the Dodgers are built to keep the mound more than warm until Kershaw returns. I doubt there will be a dry eye in the house once Kershaw finally returns.