MLB analyst gets 100% honest as Clayton Kershaw eyes 3,000 strikeouts chase with Dodgers

Left-handed starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw has returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers for yet another season in the major leagues, having spent his entire 17-year career with the team. Kershaw is the Dodgers all-time strikeout leader, but he needs 32 more to reach the hallowed 3000-strikeout mark.

MLB analyst Harold Reynolds is certain that Clayton Kershaw will be the 20th and final pitcher to record 3000 strikeouts over his career, as starting pitchers don't last for as many innings nowadays. Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer are the only other active players to have reached the mark.

Harold Reynolds is a former All-Star second baseman for the Seattle Mariners and a veteran analyst on MLB Network. He gave his take on Clayton Kershaw reaching the monumental milestone during MLB Hot Stove this Friday.

“This might be the last guy we see break that 3,000 (strikeout) mark,” Reynolds said.

The prediction, while probable, is nevertheless a bold one considering 35-year-old Atlanta Braves southpaw Chris Sale is currently on 2,414 and is going through a late renaissance after winning the National League Cy Young Award last year with a pitching Triple Crown. Sale also holds the second highest strikeout rate of all time among pitchers with at least 1000 innings.

On the other hand, New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole is another old-fashioned, durable pitcher that could potentially join the 3000-strikeout club as well. The 34-year-old has recorded 2,251 punchouts over his career and still has age on his side to reach that milestone. Moreover, Cole has posted over 180 innings and 200 strikeouts in four of the last five full seasons.

I was on crutches for four weeks: Clayton Kershaw on his injury rehab

Clayton Kershaw is recuperating from two surgeries on his left leg (Image Source: IMAGN)

Although Clayton Kershaw agreed to a one-year, $7.5 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 2025 season, his role in their pitching staff still remains unclear. At the moment, Kershaw is a few months away from being able to return to a major league mound after undergoing surgeries on his left knee and left big toe during the offseason.

Kershaw opened up about the recovery process in an interview with reporters at the Dodgers spring training camp in Glendale, Arizona, last week.

"I was on crutches for four weeks," he added. "I'm on week 14 now, so five or six weeks of walking. Re-learning how to walk. I ran here for the first time. So, it's just a lot of small steps. Throwing feels good. So, it's good."

Once healthy, the three-time Cy Young Award winner may still have a hard time getting an opportunity in a stacked Dodgers pitching staff with the likes of Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki in their starting rotation.