By Jon Weisman
One of the counterpoints to the general “Hail contract, well met” about Clayton Kershaw’s extension last week was that it’s too much money to give to someone who only pitches once every five games.
However, “once every five games” understates Kershaw’s impact on the season. Pitchers have far more interactions in a game than any other position on the field, and Kershaw, being who he is, has almost as many as anyone.
In 2013, for example, Kershaw faced 908 batters, or 182 more than the Major League leader in plate appearances, Joey Votto. Factor in that 689 of the batters Kershaw faced made outs (plus another 31 retired on the bases thanks to double-play grounders, caught stealing and pickoffs), and you can begin to see how tremendous his impact was.
Certainly, those guys didn’t make outs by themselves – outside of his 232 strikeouts, the remainder were put into play and almost entirely handled by fielders other than Kershaw, who had 27 assists in 2013. And many position players make a difference in the field as well as at the plate. But my point is, we should be far past the point of viewing starting pitchers as part-timers. (Not incidentally, this explains why they shouldn’t be counted out of the most valuable player voting.)
No one risks facing high-stress situations in baseball more often than starting pitchers. Kershaw, by avoiding them for the most part and embracing them so adroitly when they do arrive, deserves acknowledgment for that.
As for the money itself … few are under any illusions that the relative salaries of firefighters and firearmers are in moral proportion. But within a baseball context, looking at his past performance and his future projections, Kershaw’s contract passes muster (as Dave Cameron notes at Fangraphs) in this era, even with physical risk factored in. That’s the world we live in … and Clayton Kershaw, as much as anyone, deserves his rewards.
Michael Green
Jon, you’re right, and there’s another way to look at it. Let’s suppose Kershaw pitches on opening day. If he pitches well, as he figures to do, he has an effect on the timing of the hitters. If he pitches deep into the game, as he probably will do, he enables the manager to avoid using other pitchers. Yes, daily regulars have an impact beyond the immediate statistics, but I suspect a pitcher’s impact really can be harder to measure statistically.
glsmithassociates
In my opinion no sports figure is worth $100, $200, $300 million dollars ever. But then better it be distributed among the players then the owners keeping it all. That being said if any player ever deserved it more than any other player, it would be Kershaw for all he does on the field, as you have so well noted above, but especially for what he does off the field. One can only wish that others in his profession that note and try to live up to standard this young man has set. Job well done Clayton !!
oldbrooklynfan
If you think of it the only time a position player is actually doing anything is when he’s at the plate, on the bases or fielding a play, the rest of the time, he’s doing nothing but manning his position or waiting on deck. A pitchers is occupied about half the time in action and appearing on TV during the time he’s active. He may have more time off but he’s much busier than a position player in a game and is involved in every play. Actually he appears, at least, as much on your TV screen as a position player during the course of the season.