Clayton Kershaw does not feel that it is the Retirement Time
Clayton Kershaw said he wants to win another title for Dodgers but on the pitch, injury free
Glendale, Arizona – Clayton Kershaw admitted that he was not prepared for what would imply a foot surgery. He spent four weeks with crutches and another four weeks with an orthopedic boot. For more than a month, every step brought unbearable pain. Being a normal father for his four children was difficult. And yet, Kershaw, who has contemplated the retirement for years, went through a thorough rehabilitation to have the opportunity to launch again this summer, despite their Dodgers they had just achieved another championship.
This time, the retirement was not even considered.
“I hope this is the last time I have to rehabilitate myself, I finished with that, but at the same time, I do not want that to be the reason you stop playing,” Kershaw said after Thursday’s training.
“I don’t want to say, ‘I can’t do it because it hurts,’ you know? I hope to be able to retire in my own terms, whenever that happens. But it didn’t seem to be the right time, even though we won. Being on the bench for that was not the way he had planned it. Even so, I am very grateful to be part of this last year and see everything, but I want to be there when it happens. ”
Kershaw, who will celebrate his 37th birthday on March 19, underwent shoulder surgery in November 2023, returned to the rotation of the Dodgers at the end of July of the following summer, made seven openings, aggravated a long -standing injury On the foot of the foot and did not launch again, remaining inactive in October.
Shortly after the Dodgers secured their second championship in five years, and the first one in a full season since 1988, Kershaw underwent surgery to treat a bone spur and a plantar plaque broken on the left foot, as well as a procedure for remedy a meniscus tear on your left knee.
Rehabilitating the first turned out to be much more difficult than rehabilitating the second. However, the Dodgers kept him a place in the roster, waiting for Kershaw to have more clarity about his schedule before finishing a contract. Its new agreement, with a guarantee of $ 7.5 million and a series of incentives, was agreed on Tuesday and became official on Thursday.
In recent years, Kershaw has played with the idea of finishing his career with the Texas Rangers of his hometown, which they use Chris Youngone of his best friends, as president of baseball operations.
That is no longer the case.
I am a Dodger, “Kershaw said. “I am very grateful to this organization. I do not think that it is given enough merit, sometimes, to what it means to be in an organization throughout your career. You look at people in all sports that have been able to do that, and it is special .
Kershaw has been walking without aid for approximately six weeks and could start running when he reported to Camelback Ranch earlier this week. Kershaw currently can only make long releases, but anticipates launching Bullpen sessions at some point next month and alluded to return to rotation at some time at the end of May or early June. At that time, it will be located somewhere inside a loaded rotation that includes Blake Snell, Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki.
It remains to be seen if this is your last year.
“It has been year after year for several years,” said Kershaw, whose last multiannual contract expired after the 2021 season. “We will see how it goes at the end of this year.”
After finishing an eight -minute meeting with the media, Kershaw took his suitcase with wheels and returned to Highland Park, Texas, where his rehabilitation will continue. He anticipates being going and coming between the team and his house until he reaches the last stages of his rehabilitation, similar to how he went through last year.
It was not necessarily planned in this way, but at this point, he appreciates it.
“From a family perspective, I am very grateful to be able to go home for a little time at the beginning of the season and do the things of the school,” Kershaw said. “Cali is in the fourth grade and it is increasingly difficult to leave; In fact, he is learning things. So it is a bit more difficult to leave home and things like that. But at the same time, it is not intentional. I will not even think about the next year, but, if it were healthy, it would not be so. ”
