The Los Angeles Dodgers sent shockwaves through the baseball world with a social media post published on X, formerly known as Twitter, at 4 p.m. on Thursday. In it, the Dodgers announced that starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw would be retiring from professional baseball at the end of the 2025 season.
Kershaw will end his career as, arguably, the best pitcher of his generation. His laundry list of accolades includes a World Series championship in 2020, a National League MVP Award in 2014, three Cy Young Awards, 11 All-Star Game selections and both a Triple Crown and a Gold Glove Award in 2011, among a slew of other honors.
Many current and former teammates of Kershaw’s have given their flowers to the Dodgers superstar in the past 24 hours, including New York Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger.
Bellinger extends high praise to Kershaw, belives he had ‘unmatched work ethic’
Bellinger’s relationship with Kershaw goes way back. Bellinger first broke into the big leagues during the 2017 campaign; at that point, Kershaw had been an everyday major-leaguer for close to a decade.
The pair remained teammates for six seasons until Bellinger joined the Chicago Cubs as a free agent ahead of the 2023 campaign. During that time, the pair won a World Series together, and Bellinger was named the NL’s Rookie of the Year in 2017 and its MVP two years later.
Prior to the Yankees’ 7-0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday night, Bellinger was given the opportunity to share how much Kershaw meant to him.
“He was a big part of that team [that won a championship] and all our teams,” Bellinger said, via the New York Post’s Dan Martin. “They way he carries himself, I sat back, watched and learned, ‘This is what it’s supposed to be like.’ When he took the ball every fifth day, he had a presence. He was the hardest working dude in that room. He had a unmatched work ethic.”
Kershaw’s work ethic will shine one final time in the regular season on Friday night, when he is set to take the mound in the second contest of a four-game series against the San Francisco Giants.
