One of the best active pitchers in baseball today has decided this will be his final Major League Baseball season. On Thursday, Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw of Dallas, Texas announced his intention to retire at age 37. Kershaw has spent his entire MLB career with the Dodgers since the 2008 MLB season.
Kershaw has been an 11-time National League All-Star. He won three National League Cy Young Awards (2011, 2013, and 2014), was the 2014 National League MVP, and won the 2020 World Series.
In 2844 2/3 innings pitched and 452 games in his career, Kershaw has a record of 222 wins and 96 losses with an earned run average of 2.54. He has 25 complete games, 15 shutouts, and 3039 strikeouts. Kershaw has given up 2185 hits, 802 earned runs, 234 home runs and 708 walks, to go along with a WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 1.02.
Three times Kershaw led the National League in wins. He had 21 wins in 2011, 21 wins in 2014, and 18 wins in 2017. Three times Kershaw led the National League in strikeouts. He had 248 strikeouts in 2011, 232 strikeouts in 2013, and 301 strikeouts in 2015.
When Kershaw was NL MVP in 2014, he had a record of 21-3 with 239 strikeouts and a spectacular earned run average of 1.77. It was one of five times Kershaw had the lowest earned run average in the National League.
When you take a look at what Kershaw has done this season, it is actually a little surprising he is retiring. That is because he is still pitching at a high level and will be an instrumental part of the Dodgers team trying to get back to the postseason.
