Clayton Kershaw and Dodgers close in on one-year deal, another chance for second title - The Athletic

In a quiet moment, as his teammates showered, dressed and quietly left the visitors clubhouse at Petco Park in October, Clayton Kershaw sat.

The Dodgers’ 111-win season had been reduced to a first-round exit. The postseason run Kershaw came back for ended far sooner than anticipated. So the franchise’s most iconic face sat in his blue hoodie. He sipped on a beer.

While he offered encouraging words about coming back for 2023, he was hardly absolute. After all, he said, who’s to say what a winter with his thoughts would do to change what is now a year-to-year decision about whether to keep going?

“We’ll see what happens,” Kershaw said before sitting back at his locker with his beer. “Going home and being around and being a full-time dad changes your perspective on things. But as of right now, I’d say I’ll play again.”

Now it seems clear: The only man with more strikeouts than Sandy Koufax and Orel Hershiser and Don Drysdale and Don Newcombe and Don Sutton in a Dodger uniform will don the threads once again in 2023.