Dodgers: Clayton Kershaw Explains the Benefits of Failing

No matter what happens in the coming years, Clayton Kershaw is already one of the greatest Dodgers of all-time. The current MLB free agent has achieved everything a pitcher could dream of. Kershaw believes his past failures played a key role in his successes.

Kershaw described the virtues of failing on an episode of the Dan Patrick Show last week.

“Failure is a part of athletics. It’s a part of sports and I think it’s a great lesson. I learned a lot of things failing as much as I did. Obviously, I don’t recommend it. If you can just win it, you should just win it, but when I finally did, it was pretty special.”

Kershaw's October struggles have been a topic of much discussion over the years. Before Kershaw and the Dodgers won the championship that had eluded them in 2020, the lefty had a career post season ERA of 4.43.

The large disparity between his October numbers and career regular season stats (2.49 ERA) led many to openly question if Kershaw would ever replicate his regular season success in the post season.

Since it was Super Bowl week, Patrick had to ask a question or two about LA Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford. Patrick phrased it as a would-you-rather scenario: would you rather perform at an elite level on a non-contender or struggle on a perennial playoff team?

Kershaw responded.

“I’ll say this a thousand times, I’d much rather continue to have success and then fail, over and over again, but continue to get there because that’s what you play for.”

At the moment, it's unknown if the Dodgers will re-sign Kershaw once the MLB lockout ends.

Regardless, LA fans are hoping to watch Kershaw succeed in Dodger blue for years to come.