Roger Arrieta
215 Million dollars can sure buy you a lot of things. New cars, New house, unlimited supply of anything…for Clayton Kershaw that’s probably gonna take care of a couple hundred thousand children in one of the many orphanages he’s opened with his wife Ellen. That’s the difference between giving Kershaw this obscene amount of money and say giving it to someone like Alex Rodriguez. You never see Clayton Kershaw in any trouble or ever brought up in any scandals, the man does things the right way.
Yeah, 215 Million is a whole lot of money. But for what Kershaw brings to this team, it’s really not as much as he could have possibly commanded. I applaud the Dodgers efforts in signing Clayton and essentially paying him a little less than market value for his prime years. YES, HE’S NOT EVEN IN HIS PRIME YET!!! I don’t know how much better he can be, but it’s going to be fun watching him try.
So, as far as we know the contract has an out after 5 years…what’s that mean? Well, what it means is..in the event Kershaw isn’t lights out for the next 5 years,(unlikely) he is protected against injury..what it means for the Dodgers is they signed Kershaw for 5 years 150 Million, Kershaw is most likely going to opt out in year 5 at which time the Dodgers will probably re sign him to another 5 year deal or cut the cord on an arm that will undoubtedly have near 2200 innings on it at that point in time…but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Clayton Kershaw is going to be a Dodger for at the very least the next 5 years and we should all sleep a bit easier tonight knowing that.
Now, what’s next?
Well, expect AJ Ellis to get a slight raise over the weekend and also expect Kenley Jensen to receive a hefty raise in the 2-4 Million dollar a year range..that should keep the front office busy until next weekend when Masahiro Tanaka decides whether he wants to don Dodger blue or the pinstripes of the Yankees, mixed in you’ll hear about a possible Hanley extension, but I don’t see that happening until closer to spring training.
Should be an interesting week for the boys in blue, Spring training can NOT get here soon enough.
