Major League Baseball

Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw 'at peace' prioritizing team over contract

Updated Dec. 6, 2022 7:22 p.m. ET

SAN DIEGO — The big-money, multi-year deals for 34-year-old Jacob deGrom and 39-year-old Justin Verlander haven’t made 34-year-old Clayton Kershaw question his approach to free agency moving forward.

The Dodgers’ all-time strikeout leader still expects to take one-year deals for the remainder of his career. He’s content with the $20 million pact he signed to return to the Dodgers, which became official on Monday.

"We’re so at peace with the way we’re doing things," Kershaw said. "There’s nothing wrong with however anybody wants to go about it, and that’s awesome. It’s just for me, for our situation, I want to pick the team first and then figure out the contract after that."

For a 16th straight season, that team will be the Dodgers.

Immediately after his team’s unexpected National League Division Series exit, Kershaw sounded confident he would play again in 2023. He wanted to go back home to Texas first and see if being a dad to his four children would change his perspective, but he didn’t need much time to make his choice after mulling his options with his wife, Ellen.

"It really just felt like we weren’t done," Kershaw said. "I think that was the biggest thing is we just felt like our time wasn’t finished in L.A."

Kershaw called Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman to let him know his decision was made. That was about a month ago. Kershaw attributed the delay in the announcement to his procrastination in getting the MRIs done.

"I figured they had seen this enough where they didn’t need all those, but I guess they still did," Kershaw quipped. "In all honesty, it just feels great to come back. I just felt like this was where we needed to be. This is where we want to be. It just feels like we’re not done yet, the way we ended stuff last year. It just feels like we’ve got another run in us, so I’m excited to get back out there."

The way the 2022 season ended was "no fun," as Kershaw put it mildly.

The Dodgers set a franchise record with 111 wins, 22 games ahead of the second-place Padres. They dominated the regular-season matchup, beating San Diego 14 times in 19 meetings. It didn’t matter in the postseason. The Dodgers’ season ended in stunning fashion with the Padres celebrating at Petco Park after a stunning 3-1 victory in the NLDS.

"Hopefully all of us spend a little time reflecting on what went wrong, what we want to do better, how we can make this team get over the hump, because obviously the talent is there," Kershaw said. "We have the pieces. It’s just a matter of being a better team and how to do that. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, hopefully guys have been thinking about it a lot."

Ultimately, he wanted another chance to finish the job. Feeling healthy, it didn’t take him as long this offseason to make a decision on his future.

A year ago, Kershaw missed the 2021 postseason due to a flexor tendon injury. He didn’t pick up a baseball until January, and the lockout delayed his announcement further. His choice was always going to be between the Dodgers and his hometown Rangers, and he confirmed Monday it will remain that way for the rest of his career.

"It’s no secret, I think every year there’s only two teams I would ever play for going forward," Kershaw said. "There’s not a lot of leverage in that, obviously. But we just never felt like we were done."

A much more normal offseason awaits for Kershaw, who started throwing again on Monday for the first time since the postseason’s bitter end.

Kershaw’s decision to return eases the burden on Friedman and the Dodgers’ front office as they look to fill out a rotation that will be missing some key contributors. Walker Buehler is recovering from Tommy John surgery, All-Star Tyler Anderson inked a deal with the Angels, and Andrew Heaney is going to the Rangers.

"It’s great bringing Kersh back home," Friedman said Monday. "At the beginning of the offseason we talked about what a priority it was for us, knowing and appreciating the process Clayton and Ellen would go through, but the conversations were great, and he was all-in on coming back and doing all he could to help us win a championship in 2023."

Last year, Kershaw broke Don Sutton’s franchise record for strikeouts. Next year, he will match Sutton’s pitching record of 16 seasons played with the franchise. Kershaw said he’s always considered it "a cool thing" to have spent his entire career with the franchise. He referenced the connections Derek Jeter has with the Yankees, Todd Helton with the Rockies and Chipper Jones with the Braves.

Where he decides to play in the future, Kershaw said, will be "a product of circumstance."

While deGrom signed with the Rangers for five years and $185 million and Verlander is New York-bound for two years and $86.6 million, Kershaw feels good about his one-year choice.

The circumstances still feel right in Los Angeles.

"I don’t want to be told where to play," Kershaw said. "I want to pick where to play. If they want me, then we’ll figure it out. That’s how I want to go about it for the rest of my career. If there’s a few dollars left on the table, I’ll be OK with that."

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Rowan Kavner covers the Dodgers and NL West for FOX Sports. He previously was the Dodgers’ editor of digital and print publications. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.