Clayton Kershaw doesn’t want to leave family behind to play in Arizona

As Major League Baseball considers options to sequester players in Arizona, Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw is not excited about the idea.

Clayton Kershaw is not ready to leave his entire family behind to play the 2020 season in relative isolation. The Cy Young Award winning pitcher told SportsNet LA that he is not at all intrigued by the plan that would require all thirty teams to sequester themselves in Arizona in order to start the season.

It’s easy to forget that professional baseball players have families like we do. After all, we mostly see our favorite hitters and pitchers on television or at the ballpark, and not in the grocery store, or pushing a baby carriage.

But wearing the Major League Baseball logo on their work uniforms doesn’t preclude them from living a normal family life outside of baseball. Many players have small kids, and partners with whom they juggle household responsibilities.

Sure, professional baseball players spend long periods of time on the road. But they eventually come home. They can always bring their family on a long road trip. There are moments in the schedule when they can reset with the people who matter most.

Which is why Clayton Kershaw, along with several other players, are not too keen on the idea of playing the 2020 season in a sequestered area of Arizona or Florida.

“I just don’t see [the Arizona plan] happening,” Kershaw told SportsNet host John Hartung. “I’m not going to be away from my family and not see them for 4.5 months. I just talked about how much Cooper [his son] changes, you know, over one week, so to miss four months of his life right now, I’m just not going to do it. And there’s are a lot of other things that are just wrong about that proposal.”

Kershaw added that he was excited different options were being considered, and he hopes a better plan can evolve from what is being reported in the news, but he was firm about not wanting to leave his family for a long stretch of time.

Major League Baseball is considering the “Arizona plan,” which has been officially downplayed, and is one of many options being brainstormed behind the scenes. The plan would sequester all thirty Major League teams in Arizona, and possibly Florida, to play the 2020 season in isolation, away from families and fans, to allow for a “clean” environment where players and team personnel would be limited in their movements between team hotels and ballparks.

Jeff Passan of ESPN, who originally reported on the Arizona plan, doubled down on the option on Monday morning, saying it could be “Arizona or bust for Major League Baseball.”

Obviously, the Commissioner’s office and the Players Association are working together with public health officials to try to identify a solution that is tenable to the players and doesn’t pose a risk to the communities where games are played. It’s a complicated situation, to say the least.