LOS ANGELES – Clayton Kerhsaw will pitch in 2025. That much, the three-time Cy Young Award winner made clear as the Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander joined Fox’s pregame show Monday ahead of Game 2 of the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets.
Kershaw, who will miss the postseason while dealing with painful bone spurs in his left big toe, stopped short of saying he would come back for an 18th major-league season last week.
“Mentally, I feel great,” Kershaw told the Fox desk. “I had shoulder surgery last offseason, and my shoulder and elbow, everything, my arm, feels great. Obviously, I had some tough luck with my foot this year. But I want to make use of this surgery. I don’t want to have surgery and shut it down. So I’m gonna come back next year and give it a go and see how it goes.”
“I’m going to come back next year and give it a go.”
Clayton Kershaw announces that he will return next season pic.twitter.com/N0VCpcQsMq
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 14, 2024
Another potential incentive to return: Kershaw remains just 32 strikeouts away from 3,000, a career mark achieved by just 19 pitchers in major-league history.
Kershaw, 36, underwent offseason surgery to repair the glenohumeral ligaments and capsule in his left shoulder and returned in July, delivering seven starts with a 4.50 ERA in 30 innings before the pain in his toe became too much to bear. Last week, Kershaw acknowledged “there’s a chance” he will need another surgery this winter to address his toe.
After undergoing surgery this winter, Kershaw and the Dodgers agreed to a one-year deal that included a player option for 2025, with the value of that deal varying depending on how many starts he logged in 2024. He earned an additional $2.5 million in incentives to his original $5 million base salary based off his seven starts, should Kershaw choose to pick up that player option.
Given the news this week that Gavin Stone will likely miss all of 2025 after undergoing a right shoulder surgery of his own, Kershaw’s potential return bolsters some of the Dodgers’ pitching options. Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman alluded Sunday to the likelihood that the Dodgers would go to a six-man rotation next season to accommodate Japanese right-handers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani, the latter of which will be coming off a second major elbow ligament reconstruction.
(Photo: Harry How / Getty Images)
