GLENDALE, Ariz. — Faced with deciding between retirement or having the first major surgery of his life if he wanted to continue pitching, Clayton Kershaw turned to some of his closest advisors – his four kids.
“They didn’t really help too much honestly,” Kershaw said. “They were kind of indifferent.”
But Kershaw found he wasn’t indifferent about it. He had shoulder surgery in November and wound up re-signing with the Dodgers.
“I really never made a big decision in my life,” said Kershaw, who reported to Camelback Ranch and took his physical on Thursday. “I got drafted by the Dodgers. I married the same girl from high school. I didn’t have many decisions to make along the way. This was really kind of the first offseason where I had some choices to make and it wasn’t easy.”
The Dodgers’ 2023 season ended abruptly with a first-round playoff loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks and “you had to get away from the season a little bit” before thinking about his future. Pitching with an injured shoulder, Kershaw’s lone playoff start was a disaster and he “didn’t want to go out that way.”
“I think that was ultimately how I came to it,” he said.
“I went home and the season, the way it ended especially for our team and for me personally, wasn’t fun at all. A lot of doubts, a lot of different things and just really had to sit back on, if I wanted to do this it became pretty evident that I had to fix it and get surgery.“
Dr. Neal ElAttrache performed the surgery to repair the glenohumeral ligaments and capsule in Kershaw’s pitching shoulder. After three months of rehab, Kershaw started his throwing program last week and isn’t sure when his 17th season with the Dodgers will begin.
“Honestly I think summer is about as good as I can do,” he said. “It’s probably not early summer. … I hate saying a timetable because if I go below it or beyond it, it’s not good. But I would say July-ish, August-ish. Somewhere in there. I don’t know.”
The three-time Cy Young Award winner is more definitive about how he expects to pitch when he returns to the mound.
“I expect to be good,” he said. “I’ve said it before, I don’t want to be average. I don’t want to just pitch to pitch. I wanna be good. I wanna contribute and be part of this. So yeah, my expectations are no concessions. Just be good.”
Kershaw won’t be around for much of spring training. He returned home after taking his physical and doesn’t plan to return to camp until March “for a few weeks.” Once the season starts, he said he will join the team for homestands and then go back to Texas with his family when the Dodgers go on the road.
That will make Kershaw an interested observer of the Dodgers’ most anticipated season, perhaps in franchise history.
“This offseason has been pretty amazing to watch, honestly,” Kershaw said of the additions of Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow. “There’s definitely a part of me that wanted to be a part of that, part of this team. Winning an offseason doesn’t mean anything, but it’s a pretty good clubhouse of guys. The talent is probably the best I’ve ever been a part of. I’m hopeful that I can be a part of it, too.”
Kershaw took note of the extra media attention the presence of Ohtani and Yamamoto has already drawn this spring. Approximately 40 Japanese reporters were on hand Thursday as pitchers and catchers reported to Camelback Ranch.
“I think it’ll be like this pretty much the whole season, if not more,” Kershaw said. “I just talked to him (Ohtani) a little bit, I don’t know him super well. But he seems like he’s got a great head on his shoulders and he can handle it.
“Honestly, it should be good for our other guys. I think Mookie, Freddie – they’re superstars in their own right. But, I mean, the attention is going to be on Shohei 24/7. I think he can handle it from what I’ve seen and I think it should be good for our team.”
Kershaw said he has only seen videos of Yamamoto in action. But he is aware of the Japanese right-hander’s unique workout regimen – including throwing a javelin to build arm strength.
“Maybe I need to learn the javelin to come back,” Kershaw joked.
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Dodgers signed veteran infielder Chris Owings to a minor-league contract with an invitation to major-league camp. Owings, 32, has spent parts of 11 seasons in the majors with six different teams, primarily the Diamondbacks.
