There are three active major league pitchers who have won the Cy Young Award three times.

One of them is Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He won the National League Cy Young Award three times in 2011, 2013 and 2014. This happened when he was 23, 25, and 26 years old. Kershaw commanded the mound as an ace representing the major leagues even after that. However, his career began to be plagued by injuries when he injured his back in June 2016. The diagnosis he received at the time was ‘disc herniation’. This is a back pain commonly referred to as a herniated disc.

Kershaw has been on the disabled list almost every year since with a sore back. Last year, in early August, he complained of back pain and was placed on the injured list. It was because of these frequent injuries that the Dodgers did not easily catch Kershaw, who became a free agent at the end of 2021. Even after last season, Kershaw had to settle for a one-year, $20 million contract renewal.

In fact, Kershaw has nothing to regret if he retires now. He received the Cy Young Award three times, and was also the MVP of the regular season once. Although it was a shortened 60-game season, 2020 also tasted the joy of winning the World Series. As much as he enjoyed an era, he earned decent money. His cumulative annual salary until last year was over $270 million. 메이저놀이터

But there was only one thing he wanted to do. It was to stand on the mound as a member of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) U.S. national team. He said he was overjoyed when he was notified of the selection from the WBC in December of last year. At this WBC, the United States was scheduled to challenge for consecutive championships following 2017, with Mike Trout as the hitter and Kershaw as the pitcher.

However, Kershaw’s dream ended in vain. The US team announced on the 18th (Korean time) that Kershaw was leaving the WBC team. Kershaw met local media at the spring training camp at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Arizona, and expressed his deep regret about the cancellation of the WBC participation. He didn’t shed a tear, but his expression of disappointment was evident.