The greatest left-handed pitcher of his time – and one of the best all-time – has decided his time is up.
Dodgers pitching great Clayton Kershaw will announce Thursday that he is retiring at the end of the 2025 season. The announcement came in a release from the Dodgers on Thursday afternoon. There will be a 5:30 p.m. press conference where Kershaw will address the media.
The 37-year-old Kershaw is scheduled to make his final regular-season start at Dodger Stadium – where he has recorded 117 of his 222 career wins and notched his 3,000th career strikeout earlier this season – on Friday night against the San Francisco Giants. Depending on the length of the Dodgers’ postseason run, it could be his final start at Dodger Stadium.
The three-time National League Cy Young Award winner has played all 18 of his major-league seasons with the Dodgers since they selected him seventh overall in the 2006 MLB Draft. His 222-96 record and 15 shutouts rank first among active major-league pitchers.
“On behalf of the Dodgers, I congratulate Clayton on a fabulous career and thank him for the many moments he gave to Dodger fans and baseball fans everywhere, as well as for all of his profound charitable endeavors,” Mark Walter, team owner and chairman, said in a statement. “His is a truly legendary career, one that we know will lead to his induction in the Baseball Hall of Fame.”
Kershaw, an integral part of two World Series championship teams, will finish his career as an 11-time All-Star who won the 2014 National League MVP award. He is one of just 11 pitchers in MLB history to win both the Cy Young and MVP awards in the same season.
His 2.54 ERA is the lowest of any pitcher in the live-ball era since 1920, and his winning percentage tops all pitchers with at least 200 victories since 1900.
On a recent podcast interview, Kershaw gave no indication he had made his retirement decision.
“Every offseason Ellen and I sit down and try to figure out next year,” Kershaw said on the “Almost Athletes With Dude Perfect” podcast. “Get through the season, figure out how everybody’s doing and how we’ll go from there. I’m sure we’ll do that again this offseason.”
Kershaw had publicly adopted that year-by-year approach to his career in recent years, saying he would consult with his family – wife, Ellen, and four children – and decide whether he would return for another season. Ellen is expecting their fifth child, no doubt a large factor in Kershaw’s decision.
That growing family figures prominently in Kershaw’s post-career plans.
“At least for the first few years, whenever I finish up, I need to be home, man. I need to be home with the kiddos. … Especially we’ve got No. 5 coming in December,” he said on that podcast.
“I’m going to be a great dad, be a stay-at-home dad for a while and love it, and then after a couple years we’ll see what happens. I don’t know.”
Kershaw’s career can broken into two parts. Through 2017, he had finished in the top five in NL Cy Young voting seven times, winning it in 2011, 2013 and 2014. He pitched a no-hitter on June 18, 2014. But recurring back injuries became an annual challenge and injuries characterized the second half of his career. He returned following shoulder, knee and foot surgeries the past two offseasons.
He opened each of the past two seasons on the injured list. In 2024, Kershaw was forced to end his season in August because of a chronic toe injury that limited him to seven starts and just 30 innings with a 2-2 record and a 4.50 ERA, all career lows.
He missed the entire postseason, including the Dodgers’ World Series victory over the New York Yankees. That spurred him to return this year for what many had speculated would be his final season.
This season, he didn’t make his first start until May. Adapting to diminished velocity on his fastball, Kershaw has gone 10-2 with a 3.53 ERA in 20 starts with the Dodgers carefully tempering his workload.
Considered a lock to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, Kershaw will be eligible for Cooperstown in 2031.
Kershaw, who made his major league debut on May 25, 2008, won’t be bored away from the field. In addition to his growing family, he and his wife have done humanitarian work in Africa and Los Angeles.