Post by Blunashun on Mar 27, 2018 20:36:45 GMT
Clayton Kershaw faces a year unlike any other in his Dodgers career
By Andy McCullough
Mar 26, 2018 | 8:00 AM
| Phoenix
The colors of the rainbow flickered across the lobby at Camelback Ranch. Green to blue to red to yellow to green again — the light filtered through an L.A. logo carved from bronze and reflected off portraits commemorating Dodgers history.
In a leather chair near the entrance sat a living, breathing connection to that history, an emblem of the sweetness and bitterness entwined in franchise lore, a man who pitched his team to the pennant in 2017 but couldn't protect seven runs of support in the pivotal Game 5 of the World Series.
What do you do when your dream crumbles? Clayton Kershaw packed up his family early last November and returned to Texas. He did not permit himself to wallow. "It's not like life just stops, and I just sat around," Kershaw said. "I don't sit. I don't do that. Ever."
Two weeks after Game 7, he resumed workouts at the gym he built in his home in the suburbs of Dallas. A month after Game 7, he visited Los Angeles on the day of his wedding anniversary to recruit Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani. "If we get this guy," he told Ellen Kershaw, his wife and the mother of their two children, "it'll be worth it." Six weeks after Game 7, he went to his old high school and picked up a baseball again.
"What's the alternative?" Kershaw said. "Not getting over it, and just literally stewing on it day after day, and just sitting on it and thinking about 'What if? What if? What could I have done differently?' Is that any way to go about it?"
His friend and former catcher, A.J. Ellis, often remarks how Kershaw tunnels into five-day cycles. He does not luxuriate in success or dwell on failure. Three days after collapsing at Minute Maid Park, Kershaw blanked the Houston Astros for four innings in a futile attempt at a comeback in Game 7. Kershaw does not look back and does not indulge in nostalgia. That same logic applied this winter, even after finishing one victory short of a title, even as he prepared for what might be his final campaign as a Dodger.
"I understand the fans' frustration," Kershaw said. "I've been a fan. I've seen the Cowboys lose. I've seen the Mavericks lose. I understand you're frustrated. But you'd be even more frustrated if the team didn't show up the next year, either. You've got to go play. We've got to go compete.
"I mean, the alternative isn't great. To just sit there and be depressed?"
Kershaw does not traffic in half-measures. When the free-agent market stalled this offseason, Kershaw emerged as a budding leader of the labor force. He follows a rigid schedule at the ballpark and loathes detours from it.
While playing catch during the winter, "if he makes a bad throw, the next throw is right at your chest," workout partner Chris Young said. On the mound, "there's not a single person on this friggin' planet he's scared to face," teammate Alex Wood said.
They will hang a portrait of him in this lobby some day. They will hang No. 22 along the third deck of Dodger Stadium. They will call him onto a stage in Cooperstown. His teammates will tell their kids they knew the greatest pitcher of their generation — and, maybe they will say, the greatest who ever lived.
In a game that involves much uncertainty, these things feel inevitable.
But what about next year?
He could leave.
Dodgers fans should remember that when they regard Kershaw this summer, when they watch him holster his right leg as he makes his windup, when they see him raise his hands skyward before delivering the baseball from the stretch: His 11th season in Los Angeles could be his last.
When Kershaw signed a seven-year, $215-million extension in January 2014, the contract contained an opt-out clause which can be exercised after the 2018 season. Kershaw has not revealed his intention, but common sense suggests he will elect free agency for the first time in his career, joining a class which could include Washington slugger Bryce Harper and Baltimore star Manny Machado.
Interviews with current and former Dodgers, team officials, rival executives and agents form a consensus about Kershaw's potential free agency: No one knows what will happen. Further inspection reveals a tangled web involving the status of Kershaw's back, the zeal of owner Mark Walter to make Kershaw a Dodger for life, the readiness of rival teams to pay for a pitcher entering his 30s and Kershaw's willingness to leave Los Angeles.
Asked about the situation this spring, Kershaw defaulted to mentioning his ongoing dialogue with president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi. Team president Stan Kasten echoed that sentiment.
"We have all agreed not to talk about the process," Kasten said. "So whatever is going on, or not going on, we just don't want to talk about it. So I don't want to characterize it. It is fair to say we have a great, open relationship, and a lot of communication."
The sides have not engaged in significant discussions this spring, according to people familiar with the situation. That could change even as you read this paragraph — nothing is stopping the necessary parties from hammering out an extension. But in the most likely scenario, the Dodgers will negotiate with Kershaw until he officially opts out of his deal. One of the few scenarios in which the Dodgers might not pursue Kershaw with full-pocketed gusto would be if he opts out after suffering a significant injury.
www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-dodgers-clayton-kershaw-20180326-story.html
By Andy McCullough
Mar 26, 2018 | 8:00 AM
| Phoenix
The colors of the rainbow flickered across the lobby at Camelback Ranch. Green to blue to red to yellow to green again — the light filtered through an L.A. logo carved from bronze and reflected off portraits commemorating Dodgers history.
In a leather chair near the entrance sat a living, breathing connection to that history, an emblem of the sweetness and bitterness entwined in franchise lore, a man who pitched his team to the pennant in 2017 but couldn't protect seven runs of support in the pivotal Game 5 of the World Series.
What do you do when your dream crumbles? Clayton Kershaw packed up his family early last November and returned to Texas. He did not permit himself to wallow. "It's not like life just stops, and I just sat around," Kershaw said. "I don't sit. I don't do that. Ever."
Two weeks after Game 7, he resumed workouts at the gym he built in his home in the suburbs of Dallas. A month after Game 7, he visited Los Angeles on the day of his wedding anniversary to recruit Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani. "If we get this guy," he told Ellen Kershaw, his wife and the mother of their two children, "it'll be worth it." Six weeks after Game 7, he went to his old high school and picked up a baseball again.
"What's the alternative?" Kershaw said. "Not getting over it, and just literally stewing on it day after day, and just sitting on it and thinking about 'What if? What if? What could I have done differently?' Is that any way to go about it?"
His friend and former catcher, A.J. Ellis, often remarks how Kershaw tunnels into five-day cycles. He does not luxuriate in success or dwell on failure. Three days after collapsing at Minute Maid Park, Kershaw blanked the Houston Astros for four innings in a futile attempt at a comeback in Game 7. Kershaw does not look back and does not indulge in nostalgia. That same logic applied this winter, even after finishing one victory short of a title, even as he prepared for what might be his final campaign as a Dodger.
"I understand the fans' frustration," Kershaw said. "I've been a fan. I've seen the Cowboys lose. I've seen the Mavericks lose. I understand you're frustrated. But you'd be even more frustrated if the team didn't show up the next year, either. You've got to go play. We've got to go compete.
"I mean, the alternative isn't great. To just sit there and be depressed?"
Kershaw does not traffic in half-measures. When the free-agent market stalled this offseason, Kershaw emerged as a budding leader of the labor force. He follows a rigid schedule at the ballpark and loathes detours from it.
While playing catch during the winter, "if he makes a bad throw, the next throw is right at your chest," workout partner Chris Young said. On the mound, "there's not a single person on this friggin' planet he's scared to face," teammate Alex Wood said.
They will hang a portrait of him in this lobby some day. They will hang No. 22 along the third deck of Dodger Stadium. They will call him onto a stage in Cooperstown. His teammates will tell their kids they knew the greatest pitcher of their generation — and, maybe they will say, the greatest who ever lived.
In a game that involves much uncertainty, these things feel inevitable.
But what about next year?
He could leave.
Dodgers fans should remember that when they regard Kershaw this summer, when they watch him holster his right leg as he makes his windup, when they see him raise his hands skyward before delivering the baseball from the stretch: His 11th season in Los Angeles could be his last.
When Kershaw signed a seven-year, $215-million extension in January 2014, the contract contained an opt-out clause which can be exercised after the 2018 season. Kershaw has not revealed his intention, but common sense suggests he will elect free agency for the first time in his career, joining a class which could include Washington slugger Bryce Harper and Baltimore star Manny Machado.
Interviews with current and former Dodgers, team officials, rival executives and agents form a consensus about Kershaw's potential free agency: No one knows what will happen. Further inspection reveals a tangled web involving the status of Kershaw's back, the zeal of owner Mark Walter to make Kershaw a Dodger for life, the readiness of rival teams to pay for a pitcher entering his 30s and Kershaw's willingness to leave Los Angeles.
Asked about the situation this spring, Kershaw defaulted to mentioning his ongoing dialogue with president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi. Team president Stan Kasten echoed that sentiment.
"We have all agreed not to talk about the process," Kasten said. "So whatever is going on, or not going on, we just don't want to talk about it. So I don't want to characterize it. It is fair to say we have a great, open relationship, and a lot of communication."
The sides have not engaged in significant discussions this spring, according to people familiar with the situation. That could change even as you read this paragraph — nothing is stopping the necessary parties from hammering out an extension. But in the most likely scenario, the Dodgers will negotiate with Kershaw until he officially opts out of his deal. One of the few scenarios in which the Dodgers might not pursue Kershaw with full-pocketed gusto would be if he opts out after suffering a significant injury.
www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-dodgers-clayton-kershaw-20180326-story.html
