Dave Roberts Compares Dodgers' 25-Year-Old Pitcher to Clayton Kershaw

There hasn't been a pitcher, or potentially even player, that has meant more to the Los Angeles Dodgers this century than left-hander Clayton Kershaw.

Kershaw finally called it a career after the 2025 season, playing all 18 years of his MLB life with the Dodgers.

The 2026 season marked the first year since 2008 that Kershaw wasn't on the Dodgers roster on Opening Day, which was a strange phenomenon for the team. Overall, the veteran put together an incredible career, winning three World Series titles, three Cy Young awards and one National League MVP award.

However, while Kershaw may be gone from the Dodgers, there is another young left-hander in Los Angeles who has been making waves — and manager Dave Roberts has even compared him to the franchise legend.

This would be Justin Wrobleski, who has emerged as a true weapon out of the starting rotation for the Dodgers this season. Wrobleski was used as a bullpen piece for the team in the postseason last year, and he has continued his strong play into 2026.

“He’s got a great mentor in Clayton,” Roberts said of Wrobleski. “And I think a lot of times, he’s channeling [Kershaw’s mindset] of, ‘Go at guys and make them put the ball in play.’”

Wrobleski has gotten off to an excellent start this season, helping the Dodgers stay afloat while they've missed Blake Snell. Overall, the left-hander has posted an ERA of 1.25 over six appearances (five starts), and he has looked great throughout.

In fact, Wrobleski has only allowed one run over his last 27 innings of work, which is something that has reminded many of Kershaw's dominance. Wrobleski got the chance to watch how Kershaw worked each day over the last few years, and he has taken this to heart in his own way.

“Just watching him and his everyday [routine] was something special for me,” Wrobleski said. “Because not everybody gets the opportunity to be around these guys that are legends of the game.”

While Wrobleski has a long way to go before he is even mentioned in the same realm as a pitcher as Kershaw, he is going down a nice path. Wrobleski has a similar pitch mix to what Kershaw used, and he has used this to his advantage this season.

Like Kershaw, Wrobleski doesn't need to overpower hitters to get outs, but instead uses his knowledge of the zone to help him. The two left-handers have more in common than just being left-handed, and the current Dodger is trying to do his best to reflect that on the mound.

“He was just going out there and kind of bullying guys with his stuff, not trying to trick anybody or do anything super out of the ordinary,” Wrobleski said.

While Wrobleski has dominated hitters — allowing just two earned runs in 32 innings as a starter — he hasn't gotten many strikeouts. In fact, in his most recent outing against the St. Louis Cardinals, he didn't record a strikeout across six scoreless innings.

And yet, Kershaw was so great because he was able to get batters out in different ways. That's what the Dodgers are seeing out of Wrobleski early this season.

As for some other similarities to Kershaw?

“He wears Skechers like Clayton does,” Roberts said. “And he does his side work with his full jersey like Clayton did.”

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