Dodgers: Clayton Kershaw’s 2017 Season Grade

Clayton Kershaw is coming off another stellar season that was yet again limited because of an injury.

Clayton Kershaw is coming off arguably his worst season since 2012, which isn’t an insult. Like last year, he was plagued by a back injury, but this time missed just around a month, compared to ten weeks in 2016. Thus he was limited to 175 innings of work for the Dodgers in the regular season.

Those innings were spread out across 27 starts, accumulating an NL-leading 2.31 ERA, 0.949 WHIP, and 202 strikeouts, en route to a second-place finish in the 2017 NL Cy Young voting.

Coming into the season, nothing different from the last six seasons was expected from. Kershaw was, once again, viewed as the best pitcher in the sport by many, and was the Cy Young favorite. He lived up to that billing when he was healthy.

Prior to his injury, he was as reliable as they came, giving the Dodgers valuable innings, even when he wasn’t sharp, and was the only starting pitcher, that started the season in blue, to no go onto the “phantom DL” that the front office was believed to implement. He was his usual workhorse self.

As alluded to earlier, at the beginning of the season, something didn’t feel right with him. He did not look like his usual self. He was spiking way too many balls into the ground, missing his spots way too much, and could not throw his slider as he did in the past.

This led to a home run barrage off him, that concluded in him allowing a career-high 23 home runs on a career-worst 1.2 home runs per nine innings. It was fair to wonder whether remnants of the back injury from 2016 still lingered.

After June 19th, he was coming off a game in which he allowed six earned runs and a career-high four home runs against the Mets and his ERA inflated to 2.61. Not a bad ERA by any means, just not Kershaw-esque.

But then he started finding his groove. From June 24 to July 23 (when he got hurt) he threw 38 innings in six starts (one start was two innings) and allowed just two earned runs (0.47 ERA) with 53 strikeouts. This was his annual Kershaw tear. But sadly it came to a screeching stop because of the back.

After he returned, you could tell he was rusty. He threw 33.2 innings in September and had a 3.48 ERA and 1.22 WHIP. But this was just a tuneup for the playoffs.

And in the playoffs, if not for one horrific start in Game 5 of the World Series which skewed his numbers, his stats would look so much better. He had a 3.82 ERA in 33 innings (five starts). Take away Game 5, and he had a 2.53 ERA. But you cannot do that, and he did not show up when the team needed him.

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And the home run ball followed him into October, as he allowed a record eight long balls in his five starts (at least one in each game). The balls may or may not be juiced, but it was scary to see that nonetheless.

My favorite moment of his season has to be Game 1 of the World Series, where he threw seven innings of one-run ball, allowing three hits and striking out 11. All on just 83 pitches. There’s no doubt he rose to the occasion. This was as good as I’ve seen him in a long time, and easily his best start, to my eyes, since he came off the DL last season.

And heading into next season, the expectations are the same for Kershaw, as he is smack-dab middle of his prime and without a World Series ring to date. He may be entering a contract year, as speculation is he will opt out of his contract next winter and elect to become a free agent.

While it is virtually impossible to fathom Clayton Kershaw in anything but Dodger blue, if he gets hurt again and fails to perform when it counts most yet again, there is a chance the front office may just let him walk and allocate resources elsewhere, albeit at the ire of the fanbase.

And don’t expect that to happen. One of these years he is going to have a “Clayton Kershaw October, ” and there’s a good chance it will be next season, because he will be coming off a year where the team was one win away from the title, and his Game 5 performance was a reason why they didn’t win.

He should be back with a vengeance. The motivation will be through the roof, and his fourth Cy Young award will be in sight.

The one thing to keep an eye on will be his back and how it will hold up. Expect the franchise to be cautious with him and preserve for the postseason.

His grade wavered between a B+ and A-. He had a home run problem, injury problem, and didn’t have that patented annual Clayton Kershaw dominant shutout. And he struggled in a vital spot in the World Series. But he did have terrific numbers once again, and you can’t call the second place CY Young finish underwhelming. Besides, the regular season should outweigh the playoffs.

Next: Yasiel Puig's Season in Review

It’s hard to argue with his excellence. While it wasn’t his best of years, he still performed like MLB’s ace.