The Los Angeles Dodgers and three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw reached an agreement on a contract extension Friday that will keep the seven-time All-Star with the club through 2021.
Kershaw, 30, made 26 starts for the Dodgers this season going 9-5 with a 2.73 ERA (49 ER/161.1 IP) and striking out 155 batters against just 29 walks. He also held the opposition to a .227 batting average, while posting a 1.04 WHIP and collecting 20 quality starts. Despite missing some time with two different stints on the disabled list earlier in the season, the southpaw finished the 2018 campaign ranking among National League pitchers with at least 25 starts in strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.34, 3^rd), ERA (4^th), WHIP (4^th), opponents' on-base percentage (.264, 4^th), quality starts (T-6^th), opponents' OPS (.630, 8^th) and opponents' batting average (11^th).
The 2014 National League Most Valuable Player completed his 11^th big league season with the Dodgers (2008-18) this past year and in 318 career games (316 starts), Kershaw has gone 153-69 with a 2.39 ERA and has struck out 2,275 batters against 557 walks. Since the start of the live ball era in 1920, he has the lowest all-time career ERA and WHIP (1.00) among starting pitchers with more than 1,500 innings pitched, while his opponents' batting average (.207) ranks third, behind only Nolan Ryan (.204) and Sandy Koufax (.205). Kershaw was originally selected by Los Angeles in the first round (seventh overall) of the 2006 First-Year Player Draft out of Highland Park High School (TX).