RADIO
Clayton Kershaw 2021 Fantasy Outlook: Still An Ace?
4 years agoFew players benefitted more from the shortened 2020 season than Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw. He took full advantage of the lightened workload and threw a full season's worth of innings (58 1/3). He looked like the prime Kershaw in those frames, posting a 2.16 ERA, a 0.84 WHIP and raising his strikeout rate up to 28% after a few years of decline in that category. There are reasons not to believe in that high strikeout rate, as his contact rate stayed the same as his recent past and he did not change anything with his pitch arsenal. He also continued to lack velocity, averaging 92 mph on his fastball. While we should not expect another strikeout rate near 30%, you can take a minuscule walk rate and a strong ground-ball profile to the bank. Kershaw appears to have over-performed in 2020, and there are serious questions about how many innings he can handle in a full 2021 season. That puts him a little bit behind his current ADP (32), but he remains a very safe investment as a second fantasy starter.
