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Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp is poised for a major comeback next season following two injury-marred campaigns. Less than two years ago Kemp had emerged as one of MLB’s top five players. Now some may argue that he’s merely the fifth best player playing for the Dodgers.

As a recent NL MVP candidate and a key player on a World Series contender, Kemp’s comeback attempt will be one of the biggest storylines of the coming season. Here are five predictions for what we can expect from the former All-Star in 2014.

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As countdowns to the beginning of the season have begun for Los Angeles Dodger fans, pitchers and catchers have reported and the start of spring training is just around the corner. While there are still a few questions, it’s important to know what to look for and expect as camp opens.

With a couple of major question marks and exceptions, the lineup probably will look much like it did last season. However, manager Don Mattingly will be able to use his discretion in a couple of spots.

That being said, though, here is what I expect the Dodger lineup to look like on March 22, when the Dodgers open the season in a series against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Sydney, Australia. These guesses are partly based on last season, partly on reported rumors and partly on just my expectations.

Note: All advanced statistics courtesy of FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

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A successful baseball season usually consists of a team having a lot more players meeting or exceeding expectations than those who fall short. In most cases, at least one or two of those players will perform way above and beyond what anyone could have imagined. For the 2013 Los Angeles Dodgers, that was Yasiel Puig.

After signing a seven-year, $42 million free-agent deal in June 2012 just a few months after defecting from Cuba, Puig didn’t exactly come out of nowhere last season. But, with only 23 minor league games played between the Dodgers’ Arizona rookie-level team and High-A Rancho Cucamonga, it would’ve been difficult to find many people who thought he would make much of an impact at all in his first full season as a pro. 

That sentiment likely changed, however, after a monster spring training performance (30-for-58, 3 HR, 5 2B, 2 3B, 11 RBI, 4 SB) when he nearly forced himself onto the Opening Day roster. After posting a .982 OPS with eight homers and 13 stolen bases in 40 Double-A games to start the season, he was called up to the majors in early June.

If there were any questions about whether Puig, who struck out 11 times without drawing a walk in the spring, would be able to hit major league pitching, they were answered immediately. 

It wasn’t until his 35th big league game that his average finally dipped below .400 and, aside from the NLCS when St. Louis Cardinals pitching held him in check for the most part (5-for-22, 3B, BB, 10 K), he never really showed any signs of struggle to hit big league pitching. Puig finished his rookie year with a .925 OPS, 19 homers, 21 doubles and 11 stolen bases in 104 games. He was also second in NL Rookie of the Year voting and 15th in MVP voting. 

With Puig on the big league roster, the Dodgers went 69-38 to finish the regular season. Several factors coincided with the team’s impressive run, but none had a bigger impact than Puig‘s arrival. 

The result is that the 23-year-old will enter his second big league season with a mountain of expectations. Will he continue to put up superstar numbers despite teams having much more in-depth scouting reports on him? Or will he come back down to earth?

By “come back down to earth,” I mean that flaws in his offensive game will be exposed, and he’ll be prone to extended slumps as he tries to make the proper adjustments to pitchers who have attacked his weaknesses. There would still be plenty of highly productive weeks or even months. But over a 162-game season, there would be extreme peaks and valleys as opposed to the four months of excellence he produced in 2013.

While that doesn’t mean Puig will be a mediocre player or even an average regular, the reality is that it’s extremely difficult to do what he did over the course of a full season. Only a small percentage of big league hitters can be counted on for that type of production year in and year out. 

And we certainly can’t rule Puig out from being in that group. He’s obviously capable of doing it over a majority of the season, though the lack of information available on him had to work to his advantage, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if teams have a plan of attack for the right-handed hitting slugger based on any weaknesses that might have been revealed in 2013.

If he’s the type of player who can put up just very good numbers that are All-Star worthy—think .800 OPS, 25 HR, 30 2B and 15 SB to go along with a high strikeout total—as opposed to the MVP-caliber numbers he was on pace for last year, are the Dodgers in for a letdown as they head into the 2014 season with World Series aspirations? 

As good as its projected 25-man roster is on paper, this is not a team without concerns. Puig‘s arrival last June catapulted a team that appeared dead in the water at 23-32.

The manager and the general manager were on the hot seat. Several key players, including Carl Crawford, Matt Kemp and Hanley Ramirez (pictured), were dealing with injuries. The lack of depth in the upper minors had been exposed. Adrian Gonzalez, as good of an all-around player as he still is, hasn’t been the type of hitter who can carry a team on his back for weeks at a time as he did with the San Diego Padres a few years back.

Ramirez’s return to health was a huge part of the Dodgers’ emergence, as was Andre Ethier’s return to form after an awful start to the year. Moving Kenley Jansen into the closer role proved to be an integral move. The acquisition of Ricky Nolasco certainly helped.

But without Puig, the Dodgers may have never recovered, and there’s a good chance they’d have a new manager and general manager running the show right now. 

So what can go wrong in 2014? Every team in the majors has question marks. They all can be good if a certain number of factors can occur. A team like the Astros or Marlins would need too many stars to align in order to compete for a playoff spot. But it could happen. The teams with the best chance just have a lot less “what ifs.”

For the Dodgers to not have to count on Puig carrying the team on his back once again, they’ll need at least a good percentage of the following things to happen: 

1) Hanley Ramirez stays healthy.

2) Matt Kemp returns to full health.

3) Juan Uribe, who was re-signed to a two-year deal after a solid 2014 season, won’t revert to his 2011-2012 form (.552 OPS).

4) Cuban second baseman Alexander Guerrero, who signed a four-year, $28 million deal this offseason, won’t be a bust.

5) Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke avoid the disabled list.  

6) Dan Haren pitches like he did in the second half of last season (3.52 ERA) and not the first half (5.61 ERA). 

7) Chad Billingsley returns from Tommy John surgery in the second half and gives the rotation a shot in the arm down the stretch.

8) Josh Beckett returns to health and gives the Dodgers a solid No. 5 starter in their rotation early in the season.

That’s a pretty extensive list, especially for a team that is widely regarded as one of the top World Series contenders. If Puig‘s production does “come back down to earth,” the Dodgers better be able to check off at least five or six of these things if they’re going to avoid becoming one of the most disappointing teams in baseball in 2014.

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With the Super Bowl over and spring training commencing in under a week, the start of the baseball season is legitimately within sight. And given that, it’s time to continue to preview the season.

The Dodgers head into 2013 with more injury questions than one wants to see before the season has even started—and the majority of those uncertainties are key players whom we should keep an eye on as the calendar unfolds.

MLB.com’s injury report lists three Dodgers as of February 3: Chad Billingsley, Scott Elbert and Matt Kemp. I will add a fourth—Josh Beckett—as he is recovering from career-threatening thoracic outlet syndrome.

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Some 25 years after he retired from the game, I saw the Great One enter a baseball locker room and like an apparition, dissolve and disappear behind a shuttered door. When he reemerged—looking nearly the same as he did when he threw his last pitch for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1966—Sandy Koufax glided resplendently onto a baseball field, his iconic number 32 majestically emblazoned on his back, like righteous wings.

On that late February day in 1991, I was part of a throng of boomer worshippers attending a Dodgers Adult Camp in Vero Beach, Fla. When Koufax appeared we bowed, gathered around, and reverently gawked as he mingled and posed for photos. He gave a brief talk on the fine points of pitching—something akin to Da Vinci giving a brief talk on the fine points of painting—and then was gone, vanishing back behind the shuttered door and back to his Salingeresque-reclusive ways.

Through the years little has changed in the debate as to who was—or is—the supreme left handed pitcher in the game; for most of us, it has always been Koufax, then and now.

But the paradigm may be shifting a bit as of late; there may be small, growing fissures in the argument as to who is better, who is the greatest, and which southpaw would you rather have on your team: Sandy Koufax or the newcomer—a stylish, soon-to-be 26-year-old with watertight mechanics named Clayton Kershaw.

Armed at an early age with a prodigious curveball and this spring with the largest contract ever awarded a pitcher, for now Kershaw is the freshly anointed one. And as blasphemous as it may be, there are whispers by some who dare say he will eclipse the memory of Sandy Koufax as the greatest pitcher—left-hander or right-hander—in the history of the Los Angeles Dodgers, if not all of baseball.

A cursory glance at statistics—baseball’s omnipresent life thread of measurement and information—will show that Kershaw is indeed far ahead of Koufax at this stage of their careers after just six years in the major leagues. Entering the 2014 season, Kershaw’s overall record is 77-46, a sterling, eye-popping winning percentage of .626.

Koufax? After six seasons he was barely hanging on, languishing as a reliever and infrequent spot starter. When he was signed as a “bonus baby” in 1954 by the Brooklyn Dodgers and following the team’s move west, Koufax’s overall record was a derisory 37-42 with an ERA that ballooned to 4.48 in 1958. But he had shown flashes of brilliance, flashes of something incredibly electrifying and the team’s manager Walter Alston and general manager Buzzie Bavasi stuck with him, believing if his untamed left arm could ever find the strike zone, they would have something very special.

Kershaw? There have never been doubts or hesitations. Starting with the remark prominently attributed to former manager Joe Torre back in 2008 that the then-19-year-old fireballer “reminds me of Koufax,” Kershaw has had—fairly or unfairly—the shroud of greatness hanging around his neck like a noose.

Not so with the young Koufax, who didn’t begin his ascension until his breakout 1961 season when he went 18-13 with a league-leading and major league record of 269 strikeouts. Overall he fashioned a remarkable winning percentage of .655, in spite of his poor record prior to ’61. For six seasons—1961 through 1966—baseball had seen nothing like him, nothing close to the magic of his curve or the brilliance blaze of his fastball. His numbers during that stretch are beyond extraordinary, beyond incredible. Simply put, Koufax grew from below mediocre at best early in his career, to possibly the most overpowering pitcher, ever.

When he was forced to retire at the zenith of achievement because of his hexed arthritic left elbow—at just age 31—Koufax left a legacy few thought could ever be matched. Significantly, too, he left a frustrating, arcane question: what if? What if he had been able to pitch one, two, three or more seasons and put up similar incomparable numbers?

No one knows what could have been. We’re left only with a meteoric glimpse at genuine greatness, a baseball deity that has been unequaled. But this, we do know: very few pitchers dodge the injury plague—including, obviously, Koufax. And that brings us back to Clayton Kershaw.

Baseball’s history confirms how dicey it is for pitching phenoms to continue awe-inspiring success trajectories when just starting out; the list of once-heralded hurlers forced from the game early because of injury is frightening in its totality, scary in its reality. So the stormy, dark cloud of injury always hovers and Kershaw’s growing legion of admirers are faced with ominous questions:

• With his extraordinary mechanics, described by many pitching gurus as “nearly flawless,” can Kershaw sustain his astonishing early success and avoid injury, long-term?
• Can he add to his already impressive career that includes two Cy Young awards (and a second place in 2012), just one shy of Koufax himself?
• Can he stay focused and maintain a strict discipline?

Here’s the kicker for those jumping on the Kershaw band wagon: No matter how glittering his numbers, no matter how many Cy Young plaques may hang on his wall, until Clayton Kershaw wins a World Series he will always lag behind the three rings Sandy Koufax can boast.

Mythical or not, the Koufax aura sets an almost impossible standard. But if the conjectural heir apparent can match or surpass Koufax in championship wins and maintain a semblance of his early success, then the coronation and crowning of a new Great One can begin.

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Pretty much any story about the Los Angeles Dodgers these days is obligated to at least mention the club’s never-ending financial funding and bottomless bank account. All that money has helped the Dodgers acquire the talent to put them in position as favorites in the National League West.

One thing all that money can’t buy, though? A 10th starting position on the diamond—preferably in the outfield.

When it comes to their outfield, you see, the Dodgers have one of those, ahem, too-much-of-a-good-thing problems. In Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig, Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier, the club has four outfielders who have shown they’re worthy of starting every day. Alas, the rules of baseball allow a maximum of nine men on the field at once, three of which typically inhabit the large, expansive area covered in green grass.

What, then, are the Dodgers to do? Which of the four outfielders mentioned above might become the “odd man out” with the team due to start spring training in—get ready!—a little more than a week?

For a large portion of this offseason, there were all sorts of rumors that one of this quartet could get swapped as a way to help clear things up, as Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports wrote in November.

The two names mentioned most frequently were Kemp and Ethier, as noted a month later by Buster Olney of ESPN.

That speculation, though, has quieted down in recent weeks. At this stage, it’s looking more and more likely that the Dodgers will go into the 2014 season—their “Opening Day” series against the Arizona Diamondbacks begins on March 22—with all four outfielders on the 25-man roster.

While that can be problematic in some cases, it’s not necessarily a bad thing here. Sure, there are egos and (millions of) dollars on the line, but neither of those should be used to decide anything for a team that has World Series aspirations.

While Puig is clearly the least invested-in outfielder of the bunch (strictly monetarily speaking), there’s no way he’ll get shortchanged with playing time. Not when in only four months of action last year, the electrifying 23-year-old was easily the Dodgers’ best, most productive outfielder—and arguably their top position player—in what was his first taste of the majors.

That leaves Kemp, Crawford and Ethier to divvy up two spots. That still might seem like overcrowding, but then again, maybe not.

Kemp, remember, hasn’t been healthy for almost two full years by now. The 29-year-old has played just 106 and 73 games, respectively, in 2012 and 2013, while battling shoulder, hamstring and ankle problems.

Crawford, 32, has had injury issues himself, including elbow surgery in 2012 and a hamstring ailment last season. He made it into only 116 games in 2013 and a mere 31 in 2012.

The 31-year-old Ethier, on the other hand, has been rather durable, having managed 291 out of a possible 324 games the past two years.

Given this recent history, it seems highly probable that all four outfielders will be able to get their time in, even if that means it comes at the expense of one of the other three missing some action due to injury.

The other factor that helps this logjam? Kemp and Puig hit right-handed, while Crawford and Ethier bat from the left side. In theory, then, even when all four outfielders are healthy and playing well at the same time, manager Don Mattingly could find a way to rotate based on pitching matchups.

Crawford and Ethier continue to struggle against southpaws, posting OPS of .679 and .644 against lefties for their careers. It’s a good thing, then, that Kemp (.976 career OPS) and Puig (1.001 career OPS) absolutely obliterate opposite-armed pitchers.

The same thing holds true in reverse. Where Kemp (.795 career OPS) and Puig (.897 career OPS) aren’t quite as beastly against righties, Ethier (.906 career OPS) and Crawford (.809 career OPS) can pick up the slack, if need be.

Obviously, it’s not advisable to stunt Puig’s development while his career is still in its infancy by sitting him often against righties, but if he’s slumping, this could be a savvy maneuver.

Where things admittedly get a little tricky in all this is with defensive positioning. None of these four is a true center fielder. Kemp, the starter there for each of the last five years, has become below-average with the glove recently, and who knows what to expect from him in the field after multiple major injuries?

Ethier, the starter in right since 2007, actually covered capably enough for Kemp last season, meaning he’s likely the best option to back up at the spot in 2014. Plus, it works well that he and Kemp hit from opposite sides.

Ethier, though, should also see time in either corner, primarily as a way to give Crawford a day off in left, and occasionally, Puig in right.

By filling in at all three positions without necessarily being considered the definitive starter at any one of them, Ethier would appear to be the “odd man out” of this foursome.

Thing is, between Kemp’s and Crawford’s injury issues the past two seasons, as well as what could be growing pains and cold spells for the streaky Puig in his first full big league season, Ethier still is in line to see plenty of time.

Essentially, look for the Dodgers to employ a rotation where one of the expected starters—Kemp, Puig and Crawford—gets a day off every four or five days, with Ethier shifting across the outfield while still playing three or four games in a row to keep him in a rhythm.

Calling the situation “a good problem to have,” Mattingly told CBS Los Angeles in December about the potential plan heading into 2014:

I know somebody is not going to be happy the days that they don’t play. But also within that…we found out if we can give Carl an extra day off here or there, he seems to be even better. We think Matt will probably need the same type of thing, where you’re getting a day here and there. Andre, the same, days here and there.

These too-many-pieces “problems” do tend to work themselves out one way or another.

For evidence, just rewind to the start of Dodgers spring training last year. Heading into camp, Los Angeles had approximately 37 starting pitchers to fill its five-man rotation, and everyone was wondering how in the heck all of them would fit.

OK, really, it was more like eight rotation candidates: Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Josh Beckett, Chad Billingsley, Chris Capuano, Aaron Harang and Ted Lilly. Those first three worked out pretty darn well, but the other five? Well, there were injuries (Beckett, Billingsley, Lilly), inconsistent performances (Capuano) and trades (Harang) all within the first portion of the regular season.

Before the Dodgers knew it, what looked like a silly surplus turned into a severe shortage. Remember when they were forced to give starts to the likes of Stephen Fife and Matt Magill?

Point is, the Dodgers would be lucky to have an actual “odd man out” situation in the outfield in 2014, because that would mean all four prove productive and remain healthy for the entire season.

Even all that Dodgers money might not buy that kind of result.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11

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The report date for Los Angeles Dodger pitchers and catchers is just a few short weeks away, so it’s time to take a look at what we expect from each of them. Keep in mind that the team’s massive payroll means that many of the major league roster spots are all but guaranteed, so there probably won’t be many surprises.

With that being said, though, there are always excellent and unexpected stories, so here’s a primer on each player who will report to Camelback Ranch in the middle of February.

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Now that they’ve locked up ace Clayton Kershaw to a long-term deal, the Los Angeles Dodgers can focus their attention on keeping another star player in town for the next several years. 

According to Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports, negotiations for shortstop Hanley Ramirez, who can become a free agent after the 2014 season, are in the early stages but are ongoing.

As was the case with Kershaw, who signed a seven-year, $215 million contract extension a year before he was eligible to become a free agent, the Dodgers aren’t likely to get the discount they might have gotten had either player been further away from free agency.

If he does happen to reach free agency, Ramirez will be entering his age-31 season and should easily surpass the four-year, $53 million deal that Jhonny Peralta signed with the St. Louis Cardinals this offseason.

Like Ramirez, Peralta is an above-average hitting shortstop who might have to move to third base within the next few years because of his defensive limitations. But the comparisons end there. 

Considering that Peralta is entering his age-32 season, was suspended for 50 games late in the 2013 season due to his involvement in the Biogenesis scandal and has never put up elite numbers, as Ramirez did early in his career (.906 OPS, 25 HR, 40 2B, 39 SB per season from 2006-2010) and once again during a 2013 season in which he only played 86 games due to injury (1.040 OPS, 20 HR, 25 2B, 10 SB), it’s fairly clear that Ramirez’s value is much, much greater. 

Ramirez’s agent, Adam Katz, could argue that his client deserves to be among the highest-paid shortstops in the game. OK, so he’s already there if you only factor in the annual salary. His $16 million salary for 2014 puts him in a three-way tie with Jose Reyes and Troy Tulowitzki (pictured).

But in terms of the total value of the deal, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if Katz uses, or is using, the last six years of Tulowitzki‘s current deal as a comparison and possibly a baseline for negotiations.

For Tulowitzki‘s age-30-to-35 seasons, which run from 2015 until the final year of his deal in 2020, he’s due to make a total of $118 million, including a $4 million buyout on a $15 million club option for 2021.  

If the Dodgers gave Ramirez that exact contract (six years, $118 million with a $15 million club option for a seventh year) for the same time period, it’s doubtful that anyone would blink an eye. It also wouldn’t be a surprise if Ramirez and his camp asked for more. How about a six-year, $125 million deal with a $16 million club option for 2021? 

Here’s the argument for why it could be a mistake for the Dodgers to give him that kind of money over that length of time. 

It’s hard to ignore how well Ramirez played last season once he was healthy. But we also can’t forget about his decline over the previous two seasons (.742 OPS, 17 HR, 20 SB per season from 2011-2012) and how far his value had fallen by the time the Dodgers acquired him from the Marlins in July 2012 for pitchers Nathan Eovaldi and Scott McGough.

After struggling for most of 2011, Ramirez’s season was cut short by a shoulder injury that required surgery. He played 157 games in 2012, although his production fell short of where it had been prior to the 2011 season. He also played 90 games at third base, which he had only ever played a handful of times early in his minor league career. The shoulder surgery and the position change both could’ve played major factors. 

If his strong comeback season in 2013 didn’t take so long to get going—he was limited to only four games over the first two months of the season due to thumb and hamstring injuries—he’d have a much stronger argument for those two factors contributing to his numbers falling off.

Instead, it’s hard to be completely convinced that Ramirez can still be the same player over a full season. It’s also fair to question his ability to stay healthy. Paying him to be the player he was from 2006-2010 in hopes that he’d repeat the performance in his early-to-mid-30’s might not be the best idea in the world. 

While the Dodgers are a team built to win now and their window of contention appears to be wide open for at least the next couple of seasons, there will be a few more options on the free-agent market next season who could come much cheaper. J.J. Hardy and Jed Lowrie will be the top shortstops available aside from Ramirez, while Asdrubal Cabrera could also be a popular name if he has a strong season.

And if the Dodgers would like to keep the big league path clear for top prospect Kyle Seager, who is likely to begin the 2014 season in High-A and could be knocking down the door to the majors by late 2015, they may not want to sign any shortstop to a long-term deal.

With that said, Ramirez’s value is high after his impressive half-season. It could be even higher if he can play 140-plus games and put up an .850-plus OPS with 25 homers and 20 stolen bases.

Barring a mediocre 2014, some team is very likely to pay him big money on a multi-year deal if he reaches free agency next offseason. The Dodgers will need to decide if they’re better off with or without him in the mix for 2015 and beyond and whether it’s worth adding another mega-contract to their payroll that will likely pay a player beyond his prime.

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It’s no secret that the Los Angeles Dodgers have made the cash-strapped days of the Frank McCourt era a distant memory. As if the baseball world needed another reminder, the team recently made its superstar pitcher, Clayton Kershaw, the highest-paid player in the history of the sport.

His seven-year, $250 million contract extension, first reported by ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, even includes an opt-out clause after five years. This means that Kershaw could potentially be in line for an even richer deal if he decides to opt out as a 30-year-old in 2018.

Of course, a deal this lengthy and this expensive does not come without risk. The Dodgers are taking a big gamble, but for a soon-to-be 26-year-old pitcher who has won two out of the last three Cy Young Awards and has never landed on the disabled list, it’s a move they had to make.

As the dust settles and the 2014 season approaches, here are three bold predictions for Kershaw’s record-setting deal:

1. Clayton Kershaw will win at least two more Cy Young Awards

Baseball teams only hand out seven-year, $250 million extensions to the best pitchers on the planet, and Kershaw happens to be the best pitcher on the planet. 

The 2011 and 2013 Cy Young Award winner should have also received the honor in 2012, but the baseball world decided to champion the R.A. Dickey feel-good story, despite Kershaw compiling a lower ERA and WHIP than Dickey. Perhaps Dickey received the award because his knuckleball was able to strike out 230 batters, while Kershaw only fanned 229.

In any event, Kershaw responded to his snub by posting a 1.83 ERA in 2013, the league’s lowest since Pedro Martinez’s 1.74 in 2000.

Besides a nonexistent injury history, the scary part is that Kershaw won’t turn 26 until March.

Most pitchers are only entering their prime at this age. Kershaw is already there.

And with so much money invested in their prized southpaw, the Dodgers will be sure to continue their responsible usage of Kershaw. He has just five career starts of 120 or more pitches.

If Kershaw progresses at this rate, it won’t be a question of whether or not he wins multiple Cy Young Awards during the next few seasons. It will be a question of how many.

2. Clayton Kershaw will help the Dodgers win the World Series

Every Dodgers fan remembers how last season ended.

Kershaw, the team’s most reliable pitcher, shockingly imploded in the biggest game of his life. If Dodgers fans thought it was rough, imagine how Kershaw has felt these past few months.

His last memory of the 2013 season was walking off the field as the St. Louis Cardinals were piling onto what would end up being a 9-0 shellacking to end the Dodgers’ playoff run.

Albeit $250 million probably washed some of the bad taste from his mouth, but a competitor like Kershaw doesn’t forget the bad. (See: Dickey 2012)

He knows the deep-pocketed Guggenheim ownership group has gone all in to put a legitimate contender on the field. And with most of the key pieces locked in for the next few seasons, a championship is well within reach. The team proved its potential last season, coming within two wins of its first World Series appearance in 25 years.

If the Dodgers find themselves in another win-or-go-home game come October, you can bet Kershaw will be on the mound, eager to live up to the hefty expectations placed upon his shoulders with the new extension.

And you can bet he won’t let the season end prematurely on his watch again. Instead of sitting in the dugout watching another team celebrate at his expense, it will be Kershaw doing the dancing with his teammates sooner rather than later.

3. Kershaw will opt out in 2018

Assuming the first two predictions come true, Kershaw will enter the 2018 season with at least four Cy Young Awards and at least one World Series ring by the age of 30.

That’s the kind of resume that launches pitchers into the Hall of Fame at the end of their careers.

For Kershaw, it’ll be the kind of resume that he can use to to test the free-agent market, which would almost certainly assure him an even richer contract—if that’s even possible.

The opt-out clause after five years was an essential part of the deal for Kershaw, according to Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times.

The Dodgers, fresh off finalizing a multi-billion-dollar television deal, should have no problem outbidding other suitors for the Texas native’s prized left arm in the event that he opts out in 2018.

For Kershaw, it’s a win-win situation.

For the Dodgers, it’s a win-win intuition. 

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With only one bit of business still left to conduct (the Masahiro Tanaka negotiations), the Los Angeles Dodgers’ offseason is just about over. They’ve shored up the back of their rotation, re-signed their big free agents and set themselves for the future.

In fact, by all accounts, they’ve had a very successful winter. Bringing back Juan Uribe filled the one big potential hole, and extending Clayton Kershaw took care of the one big cloud hanging over the front office.

So, given that we’re just under a month away from the beginning of spring training, let’s take a look at the winners and losers of the Dodgers’ offseason.

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