The Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander, who has announced he is retiring after the season, will not be on the team’s roster for the upcoming NL wild card series, manager Dave Roberts told reporters Sept. 28.
Kershaw, 37, is starting the Dodgers’ season finale at Seattle and will make a regular start, Roberts said. The club has pondered using him in relief in the postseason and he even appeared in the ninth inning of a tie game at Arizona last week.
Yet in the best-of-three wild card series beginning Sept. 30, the Dodgers will be flush with pitching, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and Shohei Ohtani able to start the two to three games and others such as Emmet Sheehan sent to the bullpen.
And they may not need his services in a best-of-five NL Division Series, either, if they survive the wild card round against either the New York Mets or Cincinnati Reds. But the best-of-seven NL Championship Series and World Series may require greater length and likelier, a role for Kershaw.
Kershaw, the three-time Cy Young winner, has a 222-96 career record, and will bring a 10-3 2025 mark into his start at Seattle.
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