Dodgers star Clayton Kershaw announces retirement after 2025 season

Clayton Kershaw announced on Sept. 18, 2025, that the 2025 season will be his last in baseball, bringing to a close an 18-year run with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The move ends a career that placed him among the game’s defining pitchers of the 2010s and into the new decade, a span in which he combined sustained excellence with rare endurance for a starter who routinely worked deep into games.

Drafted by the Dodgers in 2006, Kershaw spent his entire professional career with the franchise. He helped the Dodgers win World Series titles in 2020 and 2024, though he was sidelined by injury for much of the latter postseason. Across 18 seasons, Kershaw earned three National League Cy Young Awards, captured the 2014 NL Most Valuable Player Award, and led the NL in ERA five times. An 11-time All-Star, he also joined the select group of pitchers to win baseball’s pitching Triple Crown in 2011, leading the league in wins, strikeouts and ERA that season.

His postseason legacy is highlighted by 2020, when he delivered four wins in the Dodgers’ playoff run, including Games 1 and 5 of the World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays. The Dodgers went on to win the pandemic-delayed title, the franchise’s first since 1988. In 2024, the Dodgers captured another World Series, though Kershaw did not appear in the postseason due to injury. In announcing his retirement, Kershaw did not cite a single cause beyond a personal assessment that it is the right time to step away from the game after an extraordinary run at the highest level.

The retirement announcement follows renewed public attention after he wore a Pride-themed hat during a public appearance, a choice that drew controversy among fans and commentators. While the reaction was mixed, the moment underscored the broader interest in how athletes express personal beliefs in high-profile platforms. Kershaw has historically been viewed as a leader in the Dodgers’ clubhouse, both for his on-field excellence and for the responsibilities he demonstrated in representing the franchise in the community.

Retirement will close a chapter for the Dodgers and for a pitcher widely regarded as one of the most durable and consistent players of his era. Over his career, Kershaw compiled a blend of dominant pitching, clutch postseason performances and longevity that few can match. His legacy includes endurance at the front of a rotation that powered the Dodgers to multiple championship-contending seasons and helped define a generation of Dodgers teams. As the club moves forward with a new chapter, the absence of a pitcher who defined an era will be felt across the organization and among fans who followed his every start.