Congratulations Clayton!

By now you should have heard that Clayton Kershaw signed a 7 year 215 million dollar contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. That is a ridiculous amount of money that averages over 30 million per year to buy out Kershaw's arbitration years. Obviously the question turns to whether or not he is worth it.

I would argue that if anyone is worth it, it is Clayton Kershaw. A couple months ago when I ranked the top 100 players in baseball I had Kershaw as #2 in the game, but I could easily make an argument for him being #1. His numbers and production speak for themselves. Yesterday, the MLB Network (which I recommend getting if you don't have it) ranked the top starting pitchers in baseball. Every analyst on the show had Kershaw at #1. There is no debate. He is the undisputed best pitcher in baseball. He is only 25 and he is getting better.

How much better is Clayton getting?

Last year, he pitched to an ERA of 1.83. He had 2 complete game shutouts. He pitched for the most innings in his career. He allowed less than 50 earned runs the entire season. Across 33 starts he only gave up 48 runs! The Orioles seem to give that amount up weekly. Most baseball teams give that amount up in 15 games or less. Yet, here we have this guy with a 1.83 ERA. His ERA + which is adjusted for ballpark effects is 194. He consistently has a 1.000 fielding percentage because he is great at fielding his position as well. Most impressive to me is that he is this dominant and able to pick up 200+ strikeouts for 4 straight seasons. That is 4 straight seasons of 200+ innings and 200+ strikeouts. He also has 5 straight seasons of sub 3 ERA. The guy is filthy and clearly the best right now.

Not only that, the guy is one of the best off the field as well. I have posted numerous times about him being a great Christian guy who is very committed to his charity. Don't we want a guy like that to be the highest paid in the sport? A guy who is a good man and a good player. A guy who is dominant, but also not tainted by the use of performance enhancing drugs. I am thrilled that Clayton Kershaw is the highest paid guy in sport. You can argue with the salary, you can argue with salaries in general or whether he deserves it. You can't argue that its good that someone like Kershaw is the highest paid. You can't argue that this is good for baseball to have this guy as the highest paid player. The market now dictates MLB salaries like this. I am just happy that a good guy is getting paid better than the cheaters and the crooks. Vindication for the just.

-Noland