The deadline for Clayton Kershaw to make an enormous decision about his future came up just three days after a crushing, and second consecutive World Series loss, so perhaps it was only reasonable for the sides to push the decision back a little bit.
Thus, Kershaw will not have to decide about whether to opt out of his contract for another couple days:
#Dodgers, Clayton Kershaw “have agreed to extend the deadline on his option decision until Friday at 4 p.m. ET,” the team said tonight. @MLBNetwork @MLB
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) November 1, 2018
That’s more or less the options deadline around baseball, so there isn’t anything super unusual about this move, and, like I said, it could simply be about having a little more time to mull.
But, we all know what the expectation already was with Kershaw and the Dodgers. No one has believed he would actually head into full on free agency after opting out of his deal, and would instead simply opt out in order to add some additional years onto his contract and stay in L.A. Therefore, with the deadline being pushed back, it is most reasonable to conclude this is being done because contract discussions are well underway, and the particulars could take a couple extra days to sort out.
Ultimately, I expect we’ll learn about a new deal for Kershaw in the next 30 hours or so, and I’m preparing myself mentally for it to be one that nets Kershaw some extra scratch but also lowers the AAV of his deal for Dodgers luxury tax purposes, giving them all the more leeway to spend aggressively this offseason. I have long thought them a very logical suitor for Bryce Harper (they can easily coordinate their players in the near-term to leave a hole in the outfield, and in the longer term, Yasiel Puig is a free agent after next season), and, while they’ll unquestionably go back over the luxury tax this year, I wouldn’t be surprised if they want to stay under the upper most bracket, with its additional draft and IFA-related consequences.