Clayton Kershaw Said He Sat Down With Walker Buehler and Dave Roberts Before Being Named Opening Day Starter
By Thomas Carannante
On Monday the Los Angeles Dodgers announced Clayton Kershaw would be the team's Opening Day starter, which came as a sliver of a surprise considering Walker Buehler is now very clearly the team's up-and-coming ace.
But Kershaw is still Kershaw, regardless of his playoff performances and nagging injuries that have seemed to affect him over the last four years. That's why he sat down with Buehler and manager Dave Roberts to discuss the plan of action.
#Dodgers Kershaw said it was 3-way discussion with Buehler, Roberts: "We kind of all got together and I said I don't want a charity Opening Day. If you want me to do it, great. But if you want Walker to do it, great too. Walker was great about it. I'm thankful that I get to do it
— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) March 9, 2020
The left-hander is more than right to not want a "charity" Opening Day start, so it was the team's best course of action to talk this through. While Buehler clearly has more overpowering stuff and should be the team's true ace within the next couple of years, Kershaw is still a future Hall of Famer and has one of the nastiest arsenals in the league.
Not to mention, the former MVP and Cy Young winner is going to be on a revenge tour this year in wake of the Houston Astros' sign-stealing scandal. He's already ready to go at it during Spring Training.
Clayton Kershaw with the crazy curve, and then exchanges words with the Giants dugout ? pic.twitter.com/UeiWXHnmDK
— Blake Harris (@BlakeHarrisTBLA) March 5, 2020
We're going to say starting Kershaw on Opening Day is probably a solid idea considering it's what he's accustomed to, and since he's ready to prove to the entire MLB he can lead the Dodgers to a World Series victory.