2020 Dodgers Player Projections: Clayton Kershaw

2020 Dodgers Player Projections: Clayton Kershaw

Feb 28, 2020; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw (22) throws against the Milwaukee Brewers during a spring training game at American Family Fields of Phoenix. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

Hallelujah, Los Angeles! Clayton Kershaw is healthy. "Legs, arm, everything.” He's lost some weight, spent the offseason doing anything but rehabbing (for once) and feels great. 

Bodes well for the 2020 Dodgers, don't you think? 

Perhaps most importantly (and surprisingly), the veteran left-hander has pulled a good three or four miles per hour out of a hat and dropped them into his fastball. If that sticks, it's a huge development for Kershaw going forward.

While Major League Baseball will cop to nothing, it's a commonly-held thought that the official baseball was something less than a pitcher's best friend in 2019. I'm not going to get into the laws of physics or hurl a paragraph about drag coefficient at you, but I'm confident that MLB asked Rawlings to manufacture a year's worth of normal baseballs this time around. Which should benefit Kershaw. That and maybe a tad fewer first-pitch fastballs right down Broadway.

Spring stats:

1-0, 2 GS, 4 2/3, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 Ks, 0.00, ERA, 0.857 WHIP.

2019 stats:

16-5 W/L, 29 G, 28 GS 1, 178 1/3, 60 ER, 145 H, 41 BB, 189 Ks, 3.03, 1.043.

Career stats:

169-74 W/L, 347 G, 344 GS, 2274 2/3 IP, 617 ER, 1715 H, 577 BB, 2464 Ks, 2.44 ERA, 1.008..

Baseball Reference projects Kershaw's 2020 season this way:

12-6 W/L, 164 IP, 59 ER, 142 H, 40 BB, 170 Ks, 3.24 ERA, 1.110, 1 SV.

Steamer's projections are as follows:

14-8 W/L, 31 G, 31 GS, 194 IP, 3.53 ERA, 3.10 FIP, 1.16 WHIP.

My projections:

13-7 W/L, 28 G, 28 GS, 168 IP, 174 K, 3.29 ERA, 1.098.

Comment: 

Steamer is usually closer to my way of thinking, but I'm with BR on this one. A smaller workload makes Kersh a healthy boy. A couple of turns through with a six-man rotation will accomplish the feat easily enough. And yes, that's something the Dodgers can and will do this season. It's as easy as one-two-three ... four-five-six.

And remember, glove conquers all.

Howard Cole has been writing about baseball on the internet since Y2K. Follow him on Twitter.