"Anthony Rendon did the opposite"; "Baseball isn't everything!" - Fans react to Clayton Kershaw's major career decision after retirement

Dodgers star Clayton Kershaw has finally decided to retire at the conclusion of the 2025 season. After 18 productive seasons with the team, the 37-year-old exited in the best way possible, by winning his third World Series title in Los Angeles.

With the plethora of experience that the pitcher has throughout his career, it comes to no surprise that he was offered a role to stay in the team's management upon his retirement. Kershaw, however, surprisingly turned this down.

In an interview with The Athletic, he stated that the only full-time job he had after retiring was being a "full-time" dad. This generated a range of reactions from fans with some being hilarious and others being wholesome. One remark even channeled back to the time when Anthony Rendon set a butterfly effect when he turned down the Dodgers the 2019 offseason.

Furthermore, it was revealed in his interview that it was Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman that actually extended the offer to the pitcher. This was lauded by supporters and wished him the best on his time away from the game.

In a career that spanned almost two decades, the lefty star compiled an 223-96 win-loss record, 2.53 ERA, 3052 strikeouts, and generated a total of 78.1 fWAR. In addition, he was named to 11 All-Star teams, won the NL Cy Young thrice, was the NL ERA leader five times, and achieved the Triple Crown in 2011. For what he's achieved amongst his collegues, there will be little doubt that he'll be nominated to Cooperstown when eligible.

World Series victory caught Clayton Kershaw by surprise

In what was one of the most closely contested World Series in recent memory, the Dodgers prevailed over the Blue Jays after 11 exhilirating innings in the winner-take-all Game 7 in Toronto. As the celebrations erupted, however, one man was caught oblivious of the fact the the Dodgers have won the back-to-back — Clayton Kershaw.

It was revealed through several media outlets after the game that the Dodger-lifer was unaware that the squad has already won the title.

"When he hit the double play, I thought the run scored and it was tied. I had no idea. I thought I had the next batter," said Kershaw.

With the title on the balance, Game 6 starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto came on relief. With Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Addison Barger on the corner bases and red-hot Alejandro Kirk at the plate, however, the Japanese star was tasked of the burden to get them out of the jam with just one out.

As the events were unfolding, the Dodger legend was warming up on the bullpen, ready to take on the next Blue Jay batter in case Yamamoto couldn't prevent damage being done. It wasn't until bullpen catcher Josh Bardo's revelation that Kershaw snapped out of his focus and realized that the team won the World Series.

“Bardo looked at me,” he says, “and said, ‘We just won the World Series! “And I replied, ‘Are you sure?’”

Fortunately, Kirk's grounder headed straight to Mookie Betts and then relayed it to Freddie Freeman at first base to force the double play and win the title.

Edited by Daniel Santiago