Hungry for another World Series, Clayton Kershaw believes he can pitch a full season

Ultimately, Clayton Kershaw’s resolution got here down to 1 easy issue.

Even after 14 MLB seasons, three Cy Younger Awards, an MVP and a once-elusive World Collection title, his main motivation hasn’t modified. Considered one of baseball’s final rivals continues to be obsessive about profitable.

That’s why the pitcher was again at Camelback Ranch on Sunday, his look sending a couple of hundred Dodgers followers right into a frenzy on the afternoon his one-year, $17 million contract to return to the workforce was finalized on the primary official day of spring coaching.

“On the finish of the day, I wished to be right here and win a World Collection,” Kershaw mentioned. “I believe the Dodgers give me the perfect likelihood to try this and I’m excited to be again.”

A free agent for the primary time in his profession this offseason, Kershaw fielded loads of curiosity from different groups — particularly the Texas Rangers, a membership that isn’t solely proper close to his house in Dallas, the place Kershaw, his spouse Ellen and their 4 youngsters reside within the winter, but in addition a workforce run by one in all his shut pals within the sport, common supervisor Chris Younger.

Whereas the Dodgers all the time felt considerably assured the soon-to-be 34-year-old would return — one thing president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman described on Sunday because the workforce’s high offseason precedence — there have been instances that religion wavered, when some within the group puzzled in the event that they’d ever see Kershaw’s No. 22 take the sector with them once more.

“I knew going into the lockout that it was favorable for us,” mentioned Friedman, who wasn’t allowed to have contact with Kershaw throughout an MLB work stoppage that lasted from the beginning of December to Thursday. “However I didn’t know over that time frame, and him having a child, if issues would change. I had no thought.”

Friedman cited a information report from final month, during which a former teammate of Kershaw’s predicted the pitcher would be part of the Rangers, as casting additional uncertainty. And Kershaw himself acknowledged that his resolution did come all the way down to the Rangers and Dodgers.

By the point the lockout was over, nonetheless, Kershaw’s thoughts was made up. He wished to come back again to Los Angeles, the place he’s hopeful of being prepared for opening day subsequent month and staying wholesome over the course of the whole season after battling an elbow damage a yr in the past.

“I wouldn’t come again if I didn’t suppose I might pitch a full season and be able to go,” he mentioned. “That’s what I’m right here to do.”

After MLB’s new collective bargaining settlement was ratified on Thursday, ending the work stoppage after 99 days, Kershaw knowledgeable each Younger and Friedman of his resolution by the top of the night time.

“Having to name CY as quickly because the lockout ended and inform him what our resolution was, it wasn’t a simple telephone name,” Kershaw mentioned. “However he understood.”

The dialog with Friedman had a distinct tone.

“Put up-lockout, he was the primary telephone name I made,” Friedman mentioned. “We labored rapidly to get it achieved.”

Kershaw’s return was set into movement months earlier, when Friedman and the Dodgers determined at the start of the offseason to not give him a qualifying provide forward of his impending free company.

Had they achieved so, Kershaw would have been compelled into a fast resolution — having 10 days to both settle for the one-year provide of $18.4 million, or decline it and threat his worth on the open market being diminished by the very fact one other workforce would have been compelled to present the Dodgers a draft choose to signal him.

“Credit score to Andrew as effectively for not having to do the qualifying provide,” Kershaw mentioned. “That was very nice … It simply gave me time to determine it out.”

After that, Kershaw took his winter routine slowly, permitting his elbow further time to heal from a major late-season damage that compelled him to overlook the 2021 postseason and practically required Tommy John surgical procedure.

Clayton Kershaw didn’t overwork himself in the course of the the offseason as he rehabbed from damage.

(Ross D. Franklin / Related Press)

He didn’t choose up a baseball till New 12 months’s Day, and nonetheless hasn’t confronted any reside hitters (he’ll try this for the primary time on Monday). However it didn’t take lengthy for him to know his elbow was progressing effectively sufficient to pitch in 2022, eliminating any lingering ideas he had about an early retirement from the game.

“I wasn’t going to retire,” Kershaw mentioned. “I imply, until my elbow was actually dangerous. But when I used to be wholesome, I used to be going to play.”

He added: “As I began throwing in January, I began feeling higher and higher and each day I might throw extra and I wasn’t as sore, then I threw off the mound just a little extra and stored bouncing again. I used to be like ‘Man, I’m wholesome.’ ”

From there, Kershaw started to really feel a pull to stay with the Dodgers.

He mentioned that whereas the concept of being a one-franchise participant is cool, it “didn’t play a giant function in my resolution.” The very fact his 2021 season ended with an damage didn’t sway him a lot both.

As an alternative, it was all about his want to “simply win a World Collection,” he reiterated. “As soon as my youngsters are older and getting at school [in Texas], the draw of being house extra and protecting them at school is massive. There’s no secret to that. However Ellen was on board, she wished to do that once more. … We’re part of one thing particular right here. We all know that.”

Now that he’s again with the Dodgers, Kershaw is aiming to be a key contributor once more too.

He mentioned Sunday that his elbow feels 100% and that, regardless of being just a little behind in his throwing program in comparison with regular, he ought to nonetheless be prepared for the beginning of the season in lower than a month.

Wanting again, he realizes he tried to push himself too onerous final season, when he missed greater than three months from July to September with left elbow irritation earlier than speeding again and reaggravating the damage in the course of the Dodgers’ closing sequence of the common season.

Now that he had the prospect to present his arm loads of time to correctly get well — he mentioned all the MRI exams he took over the weekend seemed good — he’s assured he can deal with the workload of a full season.

“I didn’t need to come again if I assumed that there’s going to be an opportunity I get harm,” he mentioned. “Clearly well being is unpredictable at instances, however I’d somewhat not play than receives a commission and be harm, truthfully, at this level in my profession.”

Certainly, after all the things else he’s achieved, Kershaw was as soon as once more making it clear that his sole pursuit now could be reaching the last word workforce success once more. One World Collection title hasn’t fully quenched his aggressive thirst. And he was steadfast in his perception the Dodgers gave him the perfect likelihood to get there.

“It’s sort of a blur proper now, however it’s good to be right here,” Kershaw mentioned. “It’s good to be a Dodger once more.”