Clayton Kershaw intends to pitch in 2025.
The three-time National League Cy Young Award winner revealed his plans during Fox’s pregame show for Game 2 of the National League Championship Series on Monday. Kershaw had his 2024 season cut short due to bone spurs in his left toe. He has not been available to pitch during the Los Angeles Dodgers’ postseason run due to the injury.
As Kershaw explained, he didn’t want to have surgery to remove the bone spur and then not try to come back when his arm felt good. He has a $10 million player option for 2025.
“Obviously, I had bad luck with my foot this year. But I want to take advantage of this surgery,” Kershaw said. “I don’t want to have surgery and close it. So I’ll come back next year and try it and see how it goes.”
Kershaw, 36, last pitched on August 30, leaving one start against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the second inning after allowing a home run to Corbin Carroll. At that point, he had thrown 27 pitches and allowed three runs on three hits.
Following offseason shoulder surgery, Kershaw had a lengthy recovery and rehab that kept him from pitching for the Dodgers until late July. He was limited to seven starts and 30 innings, compiling a 4.50 ERA with 24 strikeouts and 36 hits allowed.
Kershaw expected to pitch in the postseason and kept pitching to stay ready. However, he admits that probably made the toe problem worse.
“Things aren’t really getting better, so I can’t pitch,” Kershaw told reporters before the NLDS, via USA Today. “I had to keep my arm to have a chance and by doing that I probably made things worse.”
Kershaw is 32 strikeouts away from throwing 3,000 in his career, which would make him 20th pitcher in MLB history to reach that total.
In addition to his 2,968 strikeouts in 2,742 2/3 innings, the left-hander has a career ERA of 2.50 and a record of 212-94. He won the National League Most Valuable Player along with the Cy Young Award in 2014, going 21-3 with a 1.77 ERA and 239 strikeouts in 198 innings.
