During Friday morning’s press conference at Dodger Stadium, Dodgers President and CEO Stan Kasten and General Manager Ned Colletti made official the seven-year / $215 million contract extension for 25-year-old left-hander Clayton Kershaw, as was first announced on Wednesday.

“We felt Clayton is so special,” Kasten said. “He checks all the boxes for us – on the field, off the field, in the community, homegrown, age-wise. (This) really was the perfect storm I think for Clayton as well as for the Dodgers.”

Dodgers President and CEO Stan Kasten calls the Kershaw contract extension “The Perfect Storm.”
(Video capture courtesy of Dodgers.com)

While there has been some criticism of the Dodgers for giving the Dallas, Texas native the largest contract in baseball history for a pitcher, the overwhelming consensus is that this is a great contract for everyone involved.

“There’s been a lot of attention about this being the biggest contract for a pitcher in baseball and that is the case,” said Kasten. “If someone should have that kind of contract it should be the best pitcher in baseball, which is what we regard Clayton as.”

Kasten said that negotiations with Kershaw and his agent Casey Close actually began last March and that the two sides weren’t all that far apart from where they eventually ended up. He added that there was never really a sense of urgency or a feeling of “…get this done now or else, from either side.”

Colletti reiterated Kasten’s sentiments saying that once the season began, their focus was entirely on at the task at hand.

“When the season gets going you have even less opportunity to really sit down and concentrate,” said the Dodger GM. “You never want anything interfering with the thought process of Clayton.”

As expected, Kershaw’s age played a major role in the contract agreement.

“A big big factor for us that really was a positive for us was Clayton’s age,” Kasten said. “We have that going for us, Clayton has that going for him. I’d feel differently doing this contract with a player who is in his mid-thirties than for someone who’s in his mid-twenties.”

Kasten, who has gone on record many times saying that he adamantly opposes no-trade, said the he is okay with opt-out clauses, such as the one in the Kershaw deal.

“For me personally I hate no-trade clauses and I’ve never done one,” said Kasten. “Opt-outs are more reasonable to us, particularly with our circumstance here in L.A. with the resources that we have and the appeal that we have to (the players). I am much more comfortable with the opt-out.”

Although Friday’s deadline for teams and players to exchange arbitration figures was a consideration in the timing of the contract extension agreement, Kasten said that is was not the underlying factor.

“(It wasn’t) a hard deadline but all deadlines have the advantage of concentrating the mind to see what we could do,” Kasten said. “Today we would have had to put a number in, and did that change the dynamics? Hard to say – it wouldn’t have been a brick wall but it made it more complicated, so we said ‘Let’s use that as a good bench mark and see if we can get it done by then.’ Both sides wanted it done so this is as good of a tool as any,” he added.

Although there were no surprises during the 13-minute press conference, it was great that the Dodgers made the entire conference available live online via the Dodgers.com website, where it will be available for review for those who missed the live stream.