In the latest sign that the Earth is still spinning, Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers have determined they belong together.      

Wednesday was the original deadline for Kershaw to exercise the opt-out in his seven-year, $215 million contract. The ace left-hander and the Dodgers agreed to push the deadline to 4 p.m. ET on Friday, and they reached a new deal just in time.

According to Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports, it’s a three-year, $93 million agreement with incentives and no opt-out:

Kershaw was already owed $65 million under his existing pact, so this is effectively a one-year, $28 million extension. 

Could the 30-year-old have done better if he’d entered the open market for the first time in his 11-year career? Almost certainly.

Though he does have some red flags hanging over him these days—more on those shortly—this is still Clayton Kershaw we’re talking about. He owns three National League Cy Young Awards, an MVP and five ERA titles. Even in a “down” 2018 season, he mustered a 2.73 ERA over 161.1 innings. Altogether, his career 159 ERA+ is the best ever for a pitcher with over 2,000 innings.

Perhaps Kershaw wouldn’t have been in line for a $200 million payday a la Max Scherzer, David Price and Zack Greinke. But he would have been in for something between $100 million and $150 million.

However, this is no time to frown on Kershaw’s decision. 

Strictly from a narrative perspective, if Kershaw opted out and bolted for allegedly greener pastures, it would have felt like LeBron James leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat or Kevin Durant leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder for the Golden State Warriors.

Defensible, for sure. Arguably the right choice, even. And yet…wrong. 

Kershaw has been in the Dodgers organization since L.A. drafted him seventh overall in 2006. He’s turned into the Sandy Koufax of his era in the 12 years since then, and his professionalism and warm personality have made fans even of those outside Dodger Nation.

“Clayton exemplifies what it is to be a Dodger,” manager Dave Roberts told reporters.

The Dodgers have certainly reaped benefits from Kershaw’s excellence. They’ve gone to the playoffs eight times during his tenure. In these, they’ve gone as far as the National League Championship Series six times and the World Series twice.

The one thing missing, of course, is the big one: the team’s first title since 1988.

The Dodgers haven’t continually fallen short because of Kershaw specifically. But he has been part of the problem. Despite the bright spots in his track record, his career postseason ERA (4.32) is nearly two runs higher than his career regular-season ERA (2.39).

According to ESPN Stats and Information, Kershaw has tended to be at his worst when the Dodgers have needed him to be at his best:

So it was the last time Kershaw took the mound in Game 5 of the World Series against the Boston Red Sox. He served up four runs on three home runs in seven innings, and the Dodgers lost 5-1. 

If the southpaw had chosen to leave L.A. this winter, the legacy left behind would have been at once historic and sadly incomplete. He would have been one of the all-time great Dodgers but not quite the greatest.

But now Kershaw has at least three more chances to wrap up unfinished business. And it so happens to be at a time when he and the Dodgers truly need each other.

Had Kershaw chosen to test the free-agent waters, the Dodgers would have been left with a rotation of Walker Buehler, Rich Hill and some combination of Alex Wood, Julio Urias, Ross Stripling and/or Kenta Maeda. Not bad but far from great.

For Kershaw’s part, it’s no secret that he’s not the unstoppable force he used to be. He’s lost time to back and shoulder injuries in four of the last five seasons. The last three have been especially rough, as he’s averaged 25 starts and 162 innings per year.

Kershaw’s fastball velocity also seems to have fallen prey to all the wear and tear. It’s been on a steady downward trend since 2015. It hit bottom with an average of 90.8 mph in 2018.

This had a not-at-all surprising effect on Kershaw’s hittability. His strikeout rate went down, and his hard-hit rate went up:

If Justin Verlander can do it, then there’s a chance Kershaw will get his health in order and eventually welcome back his vintage velocity.

But since that’s not terribly likely, it’s a good thing the Dodgers can offer all the advantages he needs. Dodger Stadium is a notorious pitcher’s park. The team will be returning many pieces from Major League Baseball’s seventh-most efficient defense. And even if Yasmani Grandal doesn’t return, Austin Barnes is an outstanding pitch-framer in his own right.

Perhaps the biggest question Kershaw had to ask himself is whether the Dodgers’ championship window has already closed. But while there is an argument there, his return is just another reason to believe it remains open.

The team’s rotation looks that much better with him in it. Kenley Jansen still anchors a strong bullpen. Manny Machado is leaving behind an offense that caught fire in the second half of 2018, but a healthy Corey Seager will step into his shoes next year. And now that their luxury-tax penalties are reset, additional help from outside the organization should be on the way.

Regardless of the price, there was never really anywhere else for Kershaw to go this winter. In theory, he and the Dodgers were always bound to each other.

Now that it’s official, they know what to do next.

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs, Baseball Savant and Baseball Prospectus.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw agreed to a new three-year contract Friday that ensures he won’t become a free agent until the end of the 2021 campaign, the team announced.

The New York Post‘s Joel Sherman reported the deal is for $93 million.

Kershaw had until 4 p.m. ET on Friday to decide if he wanted to exercise or decline the option in his contract. Had he opted out, he would have forfeited $65 million over the next two seasons. 

The 30-year-old has established himself as arguably the top starting pitcher in baseball.

He has seven seasons with 200 strikeouts or more (and hit 301 strikeouts in 2015), six seasons with a sub-2.50 ERA, three seasons with a sub-2.00 ERA and six seasons with a WHIP below 1.00. He’s thrown 175 or more innings seven times and has eight straight years of double-digit wins (2010-17).

He’s led the National League in ERA five times, WHIP four times, wins three times and strikeouts three times. 

He’s a seven-time All-Star, three-time Cy Young winner and was the 2014 NL MVP. He was the first pitcher to earn that honor in the National League since Bob Gibson in 1968 (Justin Verlander was the last pitcher to win an AL MVP in 2011).

Suffice it to say, Kershaw’s value to the Dodgers is astronomical despite a rather inconsistent postseason track record. Overall, Kershaw is 9-10 with a 4.32 ERA across 24 playoff starts, including 0-2 with a 7.36 ERA over 11 innings against the reigning champion Boston Red Sox in this year’s World Series. 

Despite those flaws, the Dodgers negotiated a new deal with Kershaw to keep the perennial Cy Young candidate in Southern California. 

If he’s able to maintain his elite level of pitching well into his 30s, that will not only be money well spent, but Kershaw may also go down as one of the most dominant pitchers in MLB history.      

Pakistan’s far-right Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party has called off protests against the acquittal of a Christian woman accused of blasphemy which have rocked the Muslim-majority South Asian democracy in recent days.

TLP on Friday signed an agreement with the Pakistani government to end the demonstrations, which also involved a number of other religious parties, party spokesperson Zubair Kasuri told Al Jazeera by telephone from Lahore.

According to Kasuri, protesters will be granted legal amnesty under the terms of the deal and Aasia Bibi – the 53-year-old Christian woman at the centre of this week’s furore – will be placed on Pakistan’s Exit Control List.

This means she is effectively barred from leaving the country.

The agreement comes after three days of protests sparked by the landmark acquittal of Bibi by Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday.

In its judgement, the court declared  there were “glaring and stark” contradictions in the case against her.

The original complainant in the case, Muhammad Salim, has filed a review petition against the top court’s verdict, Kasuri said.

But according to Pakistani law, the grounds for review petitions are extremely narrow and such appeals are seldom upheld, meaning the court’s acquittal of Bibi is likely to stand.

High-profile case

Bibi had been on death row for eight years following her arrest in the central Pakistani village of Ithan Wali over an argument with two Muslim women, who refused to drink water from the same vessel as her due to her religion.

The women accused her of having insulted Islam’s Prophet Muhammad during the altercation, a charge Bibi has consistently denied.

Blasphemy is a sensitive subject in Pakistan, where the country’s strict laws prescribe a mandatory death penalty for some forms of the crime.

Increasingly, blasphemy allegations have led to murders and mob lynchings, with at least 74 people killed in such violence since 1990, according to an Al Jazeera tally.

Asad Hashim is Al Jazeera’s digital correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera News

The Cleveland Cavaliers announced Friday that power forward Kevin Love underwent surgery on his left foot.

Love is expected to be ready to return to basketball activities in approximately six weeks.

The surgery was conducted days after Love said he would miss “several weeks” with a big-toe injury that has bothered him since the preseason.

Love has not played since Cleveland’s 102-86 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Oct. 24.

In four games this season, the 30-year-old Love is averaging 19.0 points, 13.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists while shooting just 32.3 percent from the field.

After LeBron James left the Cavs for the Los Angeles Lakers in free agency over the summer, Cleveland signed Love to a four-year, $120.4 million contract, per Spotrac.

Love is a five-time All-Star and the unquestioned face of the franchise in Cleveland on the heels of James’ departure.

Injuries have been an issue for the former Minnesota Timberwolves star in recent years, though, as he hasn’t appeared in more than 60 regular-season games in a single campaign since 2015-16.

The Cavs have the worst record in the NBA at 1-7, and improvement seems unlikely with Love on the shelf.

Until Love returns, Cedi Osman, Larry Nance Jr. and Sam Dekker all figure to receive increased minutes at power forward alongside centers Tristan Thompson and Ante Zizic.