LOS ANGELES _ Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers' ace and the face of the franchise for the past decade, agreed Friday to a three-year, $93 million deal plus incentives to remain with Los Angeles.
Kershaw, 30, had two years and $65 million remaining on the seven-year, $215 million deal he signed with the Dodgers in January 2014, when he was coming off his second Cy Young season. He was scheduled to make $32 million next season and $33 million in 2020. In restructuring his contract to cover another year, he will get an additional $28 million guaranteed, plus potential bonuses.
The Dodgers officially announced the agreement a short time after what had been a 1 p.m. deadline for Kershaw to decide to play out the final two years of his contract or opt out and become a free agent.
None of the club's executives were available to comment about the deal. Kershaw could not be reached.
Kershaw's return leaves Hyun-Jin Ryu as the only Dodgers starter who could be a free agent this season. The club still has Walker Buehler, Rich Hill, Kenta Maeda, Alex Wood, Ross Stripling, Julio Urias and Caleb Ferguson as options for the 2019 rotation.
Kershaw has headlined the Dodgers' starting staff for a decade and is widely regarded as the best pitcher of his generation. He owns a 2.39 career regular-season earned-run average, the lowest for a starting pitcher in the game's modern era. He has posted the National League's best ERA five times and led the league in strikeouts three times. His 61.6 FanGraphs WAR since making his major-league debut in 2008 at 20 years old is the best among starting pitchers across baseball. He has won the NL Cy Young Award three times and is the last pitcher in the majors to have been named MVP, earning the award in 2014. He was an all-star for seven consecutive seasons until 2018.
His decorated career is only missing a World Series title.
But Kershaw's value in Los Angeles extends beyond his pitching accomplishments, a fact the Dodgers could not overlook. He has been instrumental in the Dodgers' run of eight postseason appearances over the past 10 years, and is a beloved figure whose relentless work ethic is a model for teammates.
Kershaw's history in October _ a black mark on an otherwise pristine resume _ and his current trajectory complicate matters. Kershaw carries a 4.32 ERA in 152 career postseason innings _ an eight-year sample size too significant to discard _ and endured another shaky October this year. While he delivered two sterling starts and a clean inning to finish Game 7 of the National League Championship Series, he also yielded 14 runs (13 earned) over 14 innings in his three other appearances.
However, this October was dissimilar from the rest. He didn't enter this postseason as the undisputed best pitcher in the sport. His stuff was clearly diminished. He wasn't throwing as hard _ his fastball velocity dropped from 93.1 mph in 2017 to 91.4 mph this season _ and spent the regular season adjusting as necessary to counter the trimmer margin for error.
Only Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer have logged more innings than Kershaw over the past decade. The hefty mileage has produced injuries. Back ailments have forced Kershaw onto the disabled list each of the past three seasons. Biceps tendinitis also sidelined him for most of May.
Kershaw believes he can regain some of the velocity he has lost, and there's precedent. Verlander added 2 mph to his fastball after it dropped to a career-low in 2014, in his age-31 season. But that is not the norm. Then again, Kershaw was more than effective in 2018. He wasn't vintage Kershaw, but he still compiled a 2.73 ERA in 1611/3 innings _ good for eighth among starting pitchers who logged at least 150 innings.
While that ERA was his highest since 2010, his season would be a career best for most of his peers, and the Dodgers will pay him handsomely for it the next three years.
