The 2022 Dodgers regular season was filled with almost constant happiness. Sure, there was bad news along the way, including season-ending injuries to pitchers Walker Buehler and Daniel Hudson and lengthy struggles by Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy.
But through it all, Los Angeles won 111 games and dominated the National League West from beginning to end.
That all came to a crashing halt in the NLDS, of course, when LA lost in four games to the Padres, whom they had defeated 14 times in 19 games in the regular season.
Dodgers beat writer Juan Toribio wrote a sort of season review for MLB.com, and one of the bits of goof news he addressed is what he called the “best development” for the team this season.
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Best development: Clayton Kershaw’s health
There was a lot of uncertainty surrounding Kershaw last offseason. Nobody really knew whether he would be able to handle a full workload, but the likely Hall of Famer answered all those questions, going 12-3 with a 2.28 ERA. Kershaw is an unrestricted free agent and has expressed interest in coming back. But it’s good to see Kershaw heading into the winter fully healthy this time around.
I might quibble with this. If we’re just talking about Kershaw’s elbow, which was injured enough to threaten his career a year ago at this time, sure, that’s a positive development. But Kershaw still spent two months on the injured list this season and was limited to just 22 starts.
For me, the biggest Kershaw-related development was that he was excellent again. In 2021, also in 22 starts, Kersh posted a 3.55 ERA, the worst since his half-season as a 20-year-old rookie in 2008. For the former MVP to bounce back with a 2.28 ERA was an unexpected but welcome development.
Kershaw hasn’t made 30 starts in a season since 2015. Chances are his “health” will never be what it used to be. But if he can still be dominant when he’s healthy like he was in 2022, he’s more than worth an incentive-laden contract.
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