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FRONT COVER: Dodger legend Clayton Kershaw is showing unexpected exuberance in this moment from 2023 when he struck out Tommy Pham of the New York Mets early in the season. But, as this book explains, there is no one moment that can explain or capture Kershaw. He’s had more ups than downs and handles them all with grace. Is he the greatest Dodger ever? That’s up to you to decide. And whatever your answer, there is no debating that Kershaw’s impact on the Dodgers and Dodger fans will last for generations to come. WALLY SKALIJ / LOS ANGELES TIMES
BACK COVER: Clayton Kershaw tips his hat to the Dodger Stadium crowd as he exits on Sept. 19, 2025, his last home start of his 18-year career. Perhaps, it should be the fans that are tipping their hat to Kershaw for his hall of fame career, all as a Dodger. GINA FERAZZI / LOS ANGELES TIMES
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This book is an unofficial account of Clayton Kershaw’s career by the Los Angeles Times, and is not endorsed by Major League Baseball or the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Kershaw is retiring with a legacy as the greatest Dodger ever
BY BILL PLASCHKE • SEPT. 18, 2025
He came to town as a quiet Texas kid charged with carrying the team from Hollywood.
For 18 years, in greatness and in grief, through sweet dreams and bitter despair, he did exactly that.
He was splendid. He was awful. He set records. He crashed seasons. He was passionately embraced. He was loudly booed.
For 18 years, Clayton Kershaw pitched through the gamut of emotions as both a hero and a villain, moments of euphoria addled with spells of despair, picturesque summers disappearing into the wicked wilds of October.
But carry the Dodgers, he did, with courage and dignity and grace, and in the end, he will be surrounded only by love, a deep and abiding roar of affection from a city to a simple man who willed himself into legend.
Clayton Kershaw announced Thursday he is retiring at the end of this season.
The greatest Los Angeles Dodger ever is leaving the building.
“Yeah I’m gonna call it, I’m gonna retire,” he said Thursday afternoon during a tearful news conference in a Dodger Stadium room also filled with teammates and family. “I’m at peace with it, it’s the right time.”
He is more enduring than Sandy Koufax, more accomplished than Fernando
Valenzuela, more impactful than any hitter in the team’s 67-year history in Los Angeles.
He is not only the greatest Dodger, but also resides at the top of a list of the greatest athletes in Los Angeles history, joining Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant as Hall of Famers who spent their entire careers with one Los Angeles team and left behind a legacy that indelibly altered their franchise’s culture.
The golden era of Dodger baseball, 11 West Division titles in 12 years, two World Series championships? It is a glory that carries the shade of one man, his teammates following Kershaw’s daily leadership into a place that looks and feels like his unrelenting glare.
The Dodgers are unselfish? That’s Kershaw. The Dodgers are accountable? That’s Kershaw. The Dodgers have the strength to rise out of what seems like constant adversity? That’s Kershaw.
“When it comes to him, the story I’ve always told is that he’s always set the example,” teammate Max Muncy said. “Everyone’s known for the past 10 years that he’s gonna be a Hall of Famer, but there’s no one in this clubhouse that has worked harder than he has. … He shows up, he gets his work in, he’s gonna work as hard as he possibly can, he’s gonna leave it all out there, and then
when it’s all over, he’s gonna have some fun.”
Their newest motivation to capture a second consecutive championship this fall? That’s also Kershaw.
“I do think that his final go-around, this last push, I think it certainly motivates his teammates, who want him to go out as a champion,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And nothing more than we would want is to win in ’25. He’s handled everything — success, the failures — with grace, professionalism and that’s always been consistent.”
That he is retiring now is not a surprise. He’s been talking about it for several years. He’s 37, his beard has turned gray, he’s battled all sorts of injuries, and he’s no longer a cornerstone of the rotation.
But that he is ending his career while pitching so well is a huge surprise. His fastball crosses the plate in slow motion, but he is still able to junk it up enough to go 10-2 with a 3.53 ERA including going 5-0 with a 1.88 ERA in August.
“It’s been such a fun year, I’ve had such a blast with this group,” Kershaw said. “I can’t think of a better season to go out.”
He can still battle. He can still compete. And while there will be much emotion surrounding his final home start Friday against the San Francisco Giants, he could pitch again during
OPPOSITE: The tears were real. The feeling heartfelt. Clayton Kershaw, surrounded by friends, family and the media, announced that 2025 would be his last year in major league baseball. It’s the final chapter in the Legend of Clayton Kershaw. GINA FERAZZI / LOS ANGELES TIMES
The final line on Clayton
career, including the two regular season games he played after his retirement announcement was 455 games played, a record of 223-96, an earned-run average of 2.53 ERA and a staggering 3,052 strikeouts. That’s a hall of fame career.
the postseason, making an emergency start or even pitching out of the bullpen.
How great would it be to see him finish strong in October? After all, it is his resilience in October that has defined his career here. Although he has one MVP award, three Cy Young awards, 222 wins and 3,039 strikeouts, those aren’t the numbers that many people will remember.
A 4.49 ERA in 39 postseason appearances, those are the numbers.
That’s the failure that Kershaw endured, that’s the stain that he once felt, those are
the results that actually certify his greatness.
The St. Louis Cardinals shelled him. The Houston Astros cheated him. The Washington Nationals rocked him. And two years ago, in his most recent postseason start, gritting through a severely injured shoulder that should have kept him off the mound, the Arizona Diamondbacks shelled him for six runs before he could get two outs.
Yet he never complained about the injury. He never made excuses for anything. He never griped that he was pitching on short rest, or pitching with a bum arm, or pitching
with a terrible offense and an untrustworthy bullpen.
He kept imploding in the postseason yet he kept coming back, year after year after year. He never let his failures own him, he never let them even slow him, until he finally overcame his curses by going 4-1 with a 2.93 ERA in a 2020 World Series run that ended with a championship win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
When the Dodgers clinched that title, Kershaw was seen staring up into the heavens, thankful that redemption was finally his. He was injured last year and didn’t pitch in
RIGHT:
Kershaw’s
CARLIN STIEHL / LOS ANGELES TIMES
the postseason, but he was part of that team nonetheless, giving him two titles that all but fulfilled his career.
He had one more personal goal, though, and he reached it this summer by becoming only the 20th player to record 3,000 strikeouts.
After that game, a win over the Chicago White Sox in early July, the stoic Kershaw finally acknowledged the chills of spending his entire career with one team, and the impact of his journey.
“I don’t know if I put a ton of stock in being with one team early on,” Kershaw said
that night. “It’s just kind of something that happened. Over time, I think as you get older, and you appreciate one organization a little bit more — the Dodgers have stuck with me too. It hasn’t been all roses. I know that. There’s just a lot of mutual respect, I think. I’m super grateful now, looking back.
To say that I’ve spent my whole career here and I will spend my whole career here — I have a lot more appreciation for it now.”
That appreciation was obvious in Thursday’s news conference as Kershaw tearfully read a heartfelt essay from his wife Ellen about her
18-year view from the stands, then ended his opening statement by quoting his favorite Bible verse.
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart…” begins the verse from Colossians.
“That’s what I try to do,” Kershaw said. “Just work at it. Just work at it.”
The respect for that work has captivated a city, and Kershaw will surely hear it in these final days.
The greatest Los Angeles Dodger ever is leaving the building amid a roar that will live forever.
announced
retirement from
The retirement would come at the end of the World Series. Dodger hearts are a little sadder, but the memories remain of a player some have called the greatest Dodger ever.
LEFT: Clayton Kershaw carries his 3-year-old son Chance out of the news conference where he
his
baseball.
GINA FERAZZI / LOS ANGELES TIMES
Kershaw was always at the heart of the Dodgers’ franchise revival
BY BILL SHAIKIN • SEPT. 20, 2025
On the scoreboard in right field, it was 7:08 p.m. in the City of Angels: Los Angeles. And a crowd of 53,037 was just sitting in Friday to see the greatest pitcher of his generation take the mound at Dodger Stadium, perhaps for the final time.
Tonight
We are young
So let’s set the world on fire
We can burn brighter than the sun
The band Fun. released what would become Clayton Kershaw’s signature song on Sept. 20, 2011. That night, he beat Tim Lincecum and the San Francisco Giants 2-1 to become a 20-game winner for the first time, in the year Kershaw would become a Cy Young Award winner for the first time. If success means leaving someplace better than you found it, Kershaw triumphed spectacularly.
On Friday, the day after Kershaw announced he would retire at season’s end, the Dodgers beat the Giants again. For good measure, the Dodgers clinched a postseason berth for the 13th consecutive season, and with it the chance for Kershaw and Co. to win a third championship in six years.
Fun. broke up 10 years ago. Kershaw played 18 years, all in Dodger blue.
“Eighteen years of memories you can’t just
put into words in one night,” Kershaw said, “or feel all the feels that you can possibly feel.”
What distinguishes Kershaw in the pantheon of Dodgers greats is that he was the guiding light through the darkest of times.
“The Dodger culture has been established long before me, and it will be established long after I’m gone,” he said. “That’s the cruel thing about baseball: your career will be gone in an instant, and the game keeps going. But that’s also the beautiful thing about it too.
“This game doesn’t need anybody. I’m so grateful I got to be a small part of Dodger history for as long as I’ve been here.”
In the 1960s, the Dodgers had Koufax, Drysdale and Wills. In the 1970s: Garvey, Lopes, Russell and Cey. In the 1980s: Valenzuela, Hershiser and Gibson. In this run of success: Seager, Bellinger and Turner; and now Ohtani, Freeman and Betts.
In between: Kershaw, a metronome of excellence every fifth day, and not nearly enough else. When he made his major league debut on May 25, 2008, the Dodgers had not won a postseason series in 20 years.
The Dodgers! Twenty years!
That is what can happen when you trade away Pedro Martinez and Mike Piazza, and when Rupert Murdoch buys your team for television content, not championships.
That is what can happen when Frank McCourt buys your team and returns the Dodgers to the league championship series but pays for advice from a Russian physicist who knew next to nothing about baseball yet claimed he had “diagnosed the disconnects” in the organization while watching on television and channeling his energy toward improving the team.
That is what can happen when McCourt takes the Dodgers into bankruptcy court to take on Major League Baseball and — three days after Kershaw beat Lincecum for that 20th win — the commissioner’s office threatens to kick the team out of the league.
Those 2011 Dodgers had no chance, outspent by the Minnesota Twins and outdrawn by the Milwaukee Brewers. Kershaw pitched well enough to endure, and Mark Walter and the Dodgers’ current ownership group made sure he did not have to endure Octobers in which he pitched on short rest because the team had little choice.
“It is great that he has been a stalwart,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He has seen the organization where it was, and there were some lean times 18 years ago.
“To see where we’re at the last 10, 12 years and where we’ve been, he’s been right there in the middle of it.”
OPPOSITE: Clayton Kershaw could see the twilight of his career was on the horizon on Oct. 22, 2018, when this image of him running before his start was there for all to see. It was before Game 1 of the World Series. Kershaw pitched and gave up five earned runs in four innings en route to an 8-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox. The Dodgers didn’t fare much better, losing the Series four games to one.
WALLY SKALIJ / LOS ANGELES TIMES
RIGHT: The champagne sprayed a few times during Clayton Kershaw’s 18-year career. This particular time came on Oct. 19, 2017, after the Dodgers beat the Cubs in the National League Championship Series to advance to the World Series. Things didn’t go so well when the Dodgers lost to the Houston Astros in seven games in the World Series. That was the series the Astros were accused of cheating by stealing signs. The league did nothing to reverse the outcome.
WALLY SKALIJ / LOS ANGELES TIMES
OPPOSITE: No, your contact lens hasn’t slipped. This is a multiple exposure sequence of images in which Clayton Kershaw is throwing a pitch against the New York Mets on May 27, 2019. You can pretend it was a strike, but we actually don’t know. It was just one of the 43,216 pitches Kershaw threw in his career in the regular season.
KENT NISHIMURA / LOS ANGELES TIMES
It is easy to glance at the back of Kershaw’s baseball card, or at his Baseball Reference page, and pick whatever statistic you like to illustrate his greatness. He led the league in earned run average four years running. He won the Cy Young Award three times and finished in the top five for seven consecutive years.
He was so dominant that, when he no-hit the Colorado Rockies in 2014, The Times headline read “Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw throws first no-hitter,” because of course he
would throw another.
That might have been the only thing he did not do. His career 2.54 earned-run average is lower than the career ERA of Cy Young himself. No pitcher in the last 100 years has thrown as many innings with a better ERA.
In his final season, when a 90 mph fastball was a rarity, Kershaw (10-2) still led the Dodgers’ starters in winning percentage. He did not win on Friday, but the Dodgers did.
These Dodgers, unlike the Dodgers of his early years, had superstars to pick him up.
After Kershaw left the game in the top of the fifth, with the Dodgers trailing by one run, Ohtani and Betts homered in the bottom of the inning to put the Dodgers ahead to stay. When a reliever enters the game, Dodger Stadium public address announcer Todd Leitz simply introduces the new pitcher. On Friday, before introducing Edgardo Henriquez, Leitz delivered a proper preface and farewell all in one.
“On in relief,” he said, “of the great Clayton Kershaw.”
Kershaw legend begins with draft, then signing, then ‘Holy mackerel!’
FROM TIMES STAFF WRITERS
Logan White’s strong track record as Dodgers scouting director is indisputable. Rookies Russell Martin, Matt Kemp and Jonathan Broxton are walking, talking advertisements for his expertise.
White also is predictable — and doesn’t mind a bit.
In his fifth amateur draft on June 6, 2006, he was true to form, using the Dodgers’ first three picks on two pitchers and an infielder whose father was a major league star.
Their top prize was left-handed pitcher Clayton Kershaw, taken with the seventh overall pick. Kershaw, the first high school player chosen, reminds scouts of former New York Yankees pitcher Dave Righetti.
Kershaw was 12-0 with a 0.77 earned-run average and 139 strikeouts in 64 innings for Highland Park High in Texas.
The Dodgers had the 26th and 31st picks as compensation for the Angels signing free-agent pitcher Jeff Weaver, and they took right-handed pitcher Bryan Morris and high school infielder Preston Mattingly.
— Mike DiGiovanna
Clayton Kershaw is only 18 years old, so he won’t fill the soft spot in the starting rotation any time soon. But the Dodgers’ first-round draft pick has agreed to terms and will be introduced at Dodger Stadium on June 20, 2006, along with supplemental first-round pick Preston Mattingly.
Kershaw, a left-handed pitcher from Highland Park High in University Park, Texas, will get a $2.3-million signing bonus spread over two years. He was the seventh player taken in the June 6 amateur draft and turned down a scholarship to Texas A&M to begin his pro career.
— Steve Henson
Most fans knew Kershaw was a highly touted prospect, the seventh overall pick in the 2006 draft. But that’s all they knew.
And then Kershaw came in to pitch. Back then, fans didn’t trust anything unless it was told to them by Vin Scully, who was in the booth for the game. Kershaw was not wearing No. 22, but No. 96, as he wasn’t expected to make the team.
Scully was recounting Kershaw’s many accomplishments in high school and the minors when Sean Casey of the Boston Red Sox came up to the plate. Casey was a career .302 hitter, so he was no slouch at the plate. Kershaw got two strikes on him, then broke off his famous 12-to-6 curve. Casey’s knees buckled.
OPPOSITE: This big smile would soon become familiar to Dodger fans, but we usually would see it after a great pitching performance. Here, Clayton Kershaw celebrates with his Highland Park High teammates after hitting a two-run home run during a Texas Class 4A Region II semifinal playoff game against Corsicana High. The Scots won the game, 8-3, but lost in the next round to McKinney North.
JOHN F. RHODES / DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Striking him out seemed apropos, since a strikeout is what put Clayton Kershaw on the scene with Dodgers fans.
It was spring training of 2008, and the March 9 game was on TV, on a station where everyone could watch it (the good old days).
Scully said: “Oh, what a curveball. Holy mackerel! He just broke off Public Enemy No. 1. Look at this thing. It’s up here, it’s down there and Casey’s history.”
People were talking about it the next day. “Did you see Kershaw yesterday? Did you hear what Vin said?”
That began the legend of Clayton Kershaw.
— Houston Mitchell
‘He’s the real deal,’ Torre says after Kershaw’s first MLB start
BY KEVIN BAXTER • MAY 26, 2008
Jason Schmidt stood at the far end of the Dodgers’ clubhouse late Sunday afternoon, a towel wrapped around his waist and a bemused smile on his face.
Twice he had tried to get back to his locker, only to be repelled by the pack of notepads, TV cameras and microphones crowded around Clayton Kershaw who, unfortunately for Schmidt, was given the stall next to his.
So Schmidt finally gave up, plopped down in a chair, and watched.
The Clayton Kershaw Era had finally arrived at Dodger Stadium. And Schmidt, like most of his teammates, found himself relegated to the role of spectator.
“It was impressive,” right-hander Brad Penny said after Kershaw turned in six solid innings in the Dodgers’ 4-3, 10-inning win over the St. Louis Cardinals. “He came out, attacked them. Didn’t back down from anyone. He’s going to be fun to watch every fifth day.”
“He’s the real deal,” agreed Manager Joe Torre, a view shared by outfielder Andre Ethier.
“He’s here,” Ethier said, “for a reason.”
Even the Cardinals took note.
“You don’t like losing, but that was fun to watch,” hitting coach Hal McRae said. “He obviously has a lot of ability. He’s got a future.”
About the only thing he doesn’t have yet
is a big league win, although he was in line for that too, after holding St. Louis to two runs and five hits through six innings. And one of those runs was tainted, with Brian Barton reaching base with one out in the sixth inning when his lazy popup bounced off first baseman James Loney’s head after Loney lost the ball in the cloudy sky.
Two batters later, Barton scored when third baseman Blake DeWitt threw high to the plate after fielding Ryan Ludwick’s grounder.
Then with Kershaw in the dugout, the Cardinals rallied for an unearned run in the seventh inning on a walk, a stolen base, a throwing error and a fly ball, costing Kershaw the victory and sending the game into extra innings, where it was eventually decided on Ethier’s two-out run-scoring hit.
If any of that bothered the baby-faced lefthander, he wasn’t letting on.
“It doesn’t matter if you get no decision,” said Kershaw, 20. “As long as your team wins, that’s really all that you’re there for. Just give your team a chance to win.”
And he certainly did that, shaking off a troublesome 32-pitch first inning in which he gave up a run while striking out the side.
“After that, I really felt a lot better,” said Kershaw, who registered seven of the Dodgers’ season-high 16 strikeouts. “It was a dream come
true. It’s what you’ve been working for, dreaming about, thinking about for your whole life.
“As a baseball player, it doesn’t get a whole lot better than today.”
The Dodgers acknowledged they were in need of a spark after scoring only once in two previous games against the Cardinals.
“It was a good lift for us,” Torre said. “No question it was an emotional game. Everybody saw enough of him in the spring to get excited about the prospects of him coming up here.”
It certainly seemed to motivate the Dodgers’ bullpen, with Joe Beimel, Jonathan Broxton and Takashi Saito getting nine of the final 12 outs on strikeouts. And it was the 38-year-old Saito, the Dodgers’ oldest pitcher, who wound up with the win in a game started by the youngest pitcher in the major leagues.
“Yeah, but let’s not talk about age,” Saito said with a grin.
Age, after all, measures the past. And on Sunday the Dodgers were focusing on the future.
“He’s definitely going to give us a boost of energy,” catcher Russell Martin said of Kershaw. “He’s a left-hander who throws 96 mph with a snap-dragon curveball and a nasty changeup. That’s pretty good. Not a lot of guys have that kind of stuff in the majors.”
OPPOSITE: This is the first time the pitching coach, in this case Rick Honeycutt, visited Clayton Kershaw on the mound during his first major league start on May 25, 2008, at Dodger Stadium. As usual, the catcher Russell Martin also came out to see the first-time starter. As everyone knows, the pitching coach rarely pulls a player from the mound, that deed is left to the manager. JEFF GROSS / GETTY IMAGES
Kershaw gets humanitarian award named for Roberto Clemente
BY BILL SHAIKIN • OCT. 29, 2012
DETROIT — Clayton Kershaw was presented Sunday with the Roberto Clemente Award, the top humanitarian honor bestowed by Major League Baseball.
Kershaw, 24, the Dodgers’ ace and the defending National League Cy Young Award winner, has worked with community organizations in Los Angeles and in his hometown of Dallas. However, he and his wife, Ellen, have focused on building an orphanage in Zambia. Kershaw is the youngest winner of an award that has been presented since 1971, with recipients including Willie Mays, Cal Ripken Jr., Dave Winfield and 11 other Hall of Fame members.
“It’s players like you that make me very proud to be the commissioner,” said Bud Selig, who presented Kershaw with the award at a news conference before Game 4 of the World Series.
The Kershaws leave Dec. 31 for their third
annual visit to Zambia. The orphanage that was in its planning stages last winter has been completed, with government clearance pending for the first 10 children to move into what will be called Hope’s House.
Kershaw said the orphanage will be run by Zambians, with the hope of raising children until age 18, then providing assistance with education and employment.
The orphanage will not have a washer or dryer, he said, because most Zambians have neither appliance. The goal is to raise healthy and productive citizens there, he said, rather than bring the children to the United States.
“If their basic needs are met over there and they don’t know what they’re missing in America, I think that’s the way you want it,” Kershaw said.
“Over here, we try and attain more and more stuff, and that’s how we try to maintain our fulfillment and our joy. Over there, they
don’t have that same greed and that same want. That’s almost a blessing.”
Kershaw spent the afternoon at Ford Field, watching high school teammate and quarterback Matthew Stafford lead the Detroit Lions to victory. The Dodgers star then spent the evening watching the San Francisco Giants try to clinch their second World Series championship in three years.
“They’re winning the World Series. We’re not even in the playoffs yet,” Kershaw said. “We have to focus on getting in the playoffs.”
Dodger winners of the Roberto Clemente Award
Steve Garvey 1981
Clayton Kershaw 2012
Justin Turner 2022
Mookie Betts 2025
OPPOSITE: Clayton Kershaw peers over the Roberto Clemente Award for humanitarian service, which he won in 2012. Kershaw and wife Ellen have been trying to build an orphanage in Zambia. Later in this year, they went back to Zambia for the third time. Roberto Clemente was the Pittsburgh Pirates star who died after his plane crashed while trying to deliver emergency goods to survivors of a massive earthquake in Nicaragua. PATRICK SEMANSKY / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Roberto Clemente Award winners in the Hall of Fame
Willie Mays, San Francisco 1971
Brooks Robinson, Baltimore 1972
Al Kaline, Detroit 1973
Willie Stargell, Pittsburgh 1974
Lou Brock, St. Louis 1975
Rod Carew, Minnesota 1977
Phil Niekro, Atlanta 1980
Gary Carter, NY Mets 1989
Cal Ripken Jr., Baltimore 1992
Barry Larkin, Cincinnati 1993
Dave Winfield, Minnesota 1994
Ozzie Smith, St. Louis 1995
Kirby Puckett, Minnesota 1996
Tony Gwynn, San Diego 1999
Jim Thome, Cleveland 2002
Edgar Martinez, Seattle 2004
John Smoltz, Atlanta 2005
Craig Biggio, Houston 2007
Derek Jeter, NY Yankees 2009
David Ortiz, Boston 2011
Kershaw is first NL pitcher to win MVP since Bob Gibson in 1968
BY DYLAN HERNÁNDEZ • NOV. 13, 2014
Clayton Kershaw didn’t win a World Series ring this year, but landed the ultimate consolation prize Thursday.
Kershaw was named the most valuable player of the National League, becoming the first pitcher to win the award since Bob Gibson in 1968.
Kershaw became only the fourth NL pitcher to win both the MVP and Cy Young Award in the same season. The two other than Kershaw and Gibson to do it were both Dodgers: Sandy Koufax (1963) and Don Newcombe (1956).
The last pitcher in either league to claim the two prizes was Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers in 2011.
“You never in a million years think you’re going to win MVP, let alone a Cy Young Award, let alone be in the big leagues,” Kershaw said. “It’s an amazing night for me.”
Kershaw received 18 of 30 possible firstplace votes from members of the Baseball Writers Assn. of America. He collected a total of 355 points in the balloting to finish ahead of outfielders Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins (298 points) and Andrew McCutchen of the Pittsburgh Pirates (271).
“A little bit of shock, honestly,” Kershaw said. “You know you’re a finalist, but I guess I never anticipated to win that. I don’t know
if I can ever get used to that.”
Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez was seventh in the voting, with Yasiel Puig tying for 19th and Dee Gordon tying for 25th.
The Dodgers’ last MVP was Kirk Gibson, who won the award in 1988.
Koufax congratulated Kershaw in a statement issued by the Dodgers. “It’s a special honor to special pitcher and a special person,” Koufax said.
Kershaw won his third Cy Young Award the previous day to equal Koufax’s total.
Kershaw’s historic season started with an injury. He pitched in the Dodgers’ season-opening victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Australia, then was diagnosed with a strained back muscle and missed the entire month of April.
Kershaw returned to finish with a leaguebest record of 21-3. He led the major leagues in earned-run average for the fourth consecutive season at 1.77 and his six shutouts were the most in baseball. He had a 41-inning scoreless streak that included a no-hitter against the Colorado Rockies on June 18.
By the late stages of the season, Gonzalez said he was certain Kershaw deserved the MVP award.
“If someone even tries to mention someone
else, they’re an idiot,” Gonzalez said.
The Dodgers were 23-4 in games pitched by Kershaw and 71-64 in their other games. They won each of his 13 starts from June 2 to Aug. 10.
They were 18-15 and in third place before Kershaw returned from the disabled list. They were 76-53 after he came back and won the NL West by a six-game margin over the eventual World Series champion San Francisco Giants.
Kershaw’s dominance was such that Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly changed his mind about whether pitchers should receive MVP consideration. Mattingly previously said they should not.
Mattingly said that when Roger Clemens edged him for the 1986 American League MVP award, he had trouble understanding what the voters were thinking.
“That was then,” Mattingly said. “As a manager, you see how valuable a guy like Clayton is — or Clemens, or whoever that dominant guy is.”
Kershaw’s candidacy benefited from the absence of a dominant position player. McCutchen and Stanton were injured during critical portions of the season. McCutchen was sidelined for more than two weeks in August with a fractured rib after he was
OPPOSITE: Clayton Kershaw pitched in 245 regular season and playoff starts at home. Guessing he probably got somewhere close to that in the number of standing ovations. This one occurred on June 29, 2014, after he left a game against the St. Louis Cardinals with a 6-0 lead in the seventh inning and 13 strikeouts. The Dodgers held the lead and won, 6-0.
GINA FERAZZI / LOS ANGELES TIMES
‘It was awesome’ says Kershaw of final game at Dodger Stadium
BY JACK HARRIS • OCT. 31, 2025
As soon as Blake Treinen entered for the ninth inning of Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night, Clayton Kershaw dropped his guard and began to look around.
For the previous three hours, the future Hall of Fame pitcher had been locked in on the game, mentally preparing for a potential relief appearance from out in the bullpen.
But when that didn’t come, the 37-year-old Kershaw then let himself relax, took in the scene of an October night at Chavez Ravine, and soaked up the final moments of what was his final game at Dodger Stadium.
“It’s a weird thought, of like, ‘This is your last game ever there,’” said Kershaw, who announced last month he will retire at the end of this season. “And not a sad thought. Honestly, just a grateful thought. Just like, ‘Man, we spent a lot of great times here.’”
Win or lose in Games 6 and 7 of this World Series, Kershaw’s overall career will end this weekend at Rogers Centre in Toronto. But on Wednesday night, he closed the book on the ballpark he has called home for all 18 seasons of his illustrious MLB career.
Dodger Stadium is where Kershaw made his big-league debut in May 2008, as a highly anticipated left-handed prospect with a big curveball and quiet demeanor. It was the stage for his rise to stardom over the nearly two decades
that followed, as he went on to capture three Cy Young Awards, 2014 National League MVP honors and a career 2.53 ERA that ranks as the best among pitchers with 1,000 innings in the live ball era.
It is where he experienced some of the most defining moments of his career, including a no-hitter in 2014 and his 3,000th strikeout earlier this year. It’s also where he suffered repeated October disappointments, none bigger than the back-to-back home runs he gave up in Game 5 of the 2019 National League Division Series.
In other words, it was always home for Kershaw, the place he would return to day after day, year after year, season after season — no matter the highs or lows, aches and pains, successes or failures.
“I just started thinking about it when the game ended,” said Kershaw, who elected to traverse the field to get back to the clubhouse after Wednesday’s game instead of the connected bullpen tunnel. “I was like, ‘Man, I might as well walk across this thing one more time.’”
About an hour later, Kershaw lingered on the field a little longer, joined for an impromptu gathering by his wife, Ellen; their four children; and other family and friends in attendance for his last home game.
“Ellen just texted after and was like, ‘Hey, we got a big crew,’” Kershaw said. “So I was, ‘Well, just go to the field. I’ll try to shower fast so we can hang out.’”
Television cameras caught Kershaw laughing as his kids ran the bases, tried to throw baseballs at a hovering drone and enjoyed a diamond that had become their own personal childhood playground over the years.
At one point, Kershaw posed with the Dodger Stadium grounds crew for a picture — standing on a mound they had manicured
OPPOSITE: Clayton Kershaw waves to appreciative Dodger Stadium crowd after Game 5 of the World Series. It was his last game in Dodger Stadium, at least as a player.
ERIC THAYER / LOS ANGELES TIMES
“
‘You can’t plan any of that stuff. Who knows if it ever works out. But yeah, to get that one last out was pretty cool.’
CLAYTON KERSHAW
for all of his 228 career starts in the stadium.
“Honestly, it was awesome,” Kershaw said. “It was the perfect way to do it. Just have everybody out there, running around … It was unplanned, unprompted, but a great memory.”
