Clayton Kershaw Has Reportedly Made His Decision On 2024 Season
Clayton Kershaw has reportedly made his decision on where he'll play the 2024 season, and considering his public remarks in 2023, he's somewhat surprisingly heading back to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
To say Kershaw ended the 2023 season on a down note would be a massive understatement. The 35-year-old future Hall of Famer started game one of the National League Division Series, getting lit up by the Arizona Diamondbacks to the tune of six runs on six hits, with no strikeouts and just one out recorded. While Kershaw's postseason struggles are well documented, it was still an exceptionally poor start by any standard. Especially his. Though his late season struggles were made much more understandable after an off-season Instagram post revealing he underwent major shoulder surgery.
While his announcement said he was "hopeful to return to play at some point next summer," it's unclear how much of the 2024 season he'll miss. The Dodgers though, considering their massive financial investments in Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and James Paxton, are well positioned to wait.
READ: Dodgers Have Built A Superteam, But Does It Matter In October?
So what makes the decision surprising considering Kershaw's spent his entire career in Los Angeles and the Dodgers have the depth and money to make a deal work?
What he said during the 2023 season.
LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 17: Clayton Kershaw #22 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates after a play by Manny Machado #8 (not pictured) to end the seventh inning against the Milwaukee Brewers in Game Five of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium on October 17, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
Clayton Kershaw Returning, Even After Criticizing The Dodgers For Drag Nun Award
The Dodgers, infamously, gave an award in June 2023 to The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of anti-Catholic drag performers who dress up as nuns to mock Christianity. And Clayton Kershaw, a devout Christian, was not happy about it.
READ: Clayton Kershaw Says He Disagrees With Dodgers' Decision To Honor Anti-Catholic Drag Group
It was a shocking rebuke for one of baseball's biggest stars, who's studiously avoided any kind of political or controversial remarks, to publicly criticize his own organization. Soon afterwards, he announced the re-launch of his Christian Faith and Family Day at Dodger Stadium, in an obviously direct response to the team's decision making. That led to speculation, and even several sourced reports, that Kershaw would strongly consider leaving after the year for a long-rumored move to his hometown Texas Rangers.
Today's news though, ends that possibility. So what changed?
Rings Fly Forever
While it's unlikely we'll ever get an explanation from Kershaw himself, it's clear he ultimately didn't hold the organizational promotion against the baseball operations department. He also may have decided he didn't want his last appearance in a Dodgers uniform to be the horrendous, injury-influenced NLDS start. It's possible the team's spending spree played a role too; Kershaw now has the opportunity to team up with Shohei Ohtani, Glasnow and Yamamoto, along with long-time teammates like Max Muncy, Will Smith and Mookie Betts.
The Dodgers, despite the inherent postseason randomness, are clear favorites to return to the World Series in 2024. Although the Rangers enter the year as defending champs, it's hard to argue that his best chance of winning is heading back to LA.
For the team's fans, Kershaw returning to the Dodgers is a sigh of relief. For the Dodgers, it even further increases their World Series odds. And for Kershaw himself, it cements the likelihood he plays his entire career in one uniform, while giving him a shot at a second, full season championship. The only loser with today's news are the drag nuns, who are so laughably irrelevant that they've already been forgotten.