One year, 11 months and 11 days ago, Clayton Kershaw decided to walk away from baseball.

"I'm done," he told his wife, Ellen, immediately after a postseason debacle against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2023 National League Division Series. His body was a wreck: His left shoulder would require major surgery that winter. His pride was wounded: He had stumbled on this stage in the past, but never before had he looked so enfeebled. His spirit? Broken. He felt exhausted after spending months trying to mend his arm, all for naught.

"You battle all year, you grind," he told me that winter, in a conversation for a biography that was released last May. "Miserable all year to try and be a part of it. And then that happens. And it's like, 'That was dumb. Why did I do that?'"

He did it, he would realize, for the same reason he decided not to walk away from baseball one year, 11 months and 10 days ago. He woke up the next morning and reported to work because he still loved the game, because he could not tolerate feeling sorry for himself, and because he felt compelled to strive toward the elevated standards he had long set for himself. Which is why he was able to announce his retirement on Thursday afternoon, far from the depths he found himself in 23 months ago. He will get a chance to soak in the adulation at Dodger Stadium one more time when he starts on Friday night, and he and the Dodgers could capture their third championship together this October. For both a player and a fanbase, it is hard to script a better goodbye.

Kershaw, 37, has been openly flirting with retirement since the Dodgers won the World Series in 2020. The championship checked the final box on his resume for the Hall of Fame: Three National League Cy Young Awards, an MVP award in 2014 and 11 All-Star appearances. He had a valedictory go-round at the Midsummer Classic back in July, but he did not limp across the finish line. When he takes the mound on Friday, it will be with a 3.53 ERA and a 10-2 record in 20 starts.

His status in the postseason remains unclear, with the Dodgers likely to favor Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow over him in the starting rotation. Yet his place in franchise lore is unquestionable. After 18 seasons in Los Angeles dominating opponents, risking his health and operating as a clubhouse centrifuge, Kershaw will leave the Dodgers with at least 220 wins and a franchise record 3,039 strikeouts. Only Don Sutton won more games as a Dodger. His 2.54 ERA is the lowest among starting pitchers in the live-ball era. His 154 ERA+ ties Kershaw with Pedro Martinez for the best ever among starters.

Kershaw served as part of the bridge from Martinez's era to the current day. He was one of the last starting pitchers who hoped to finish every game he started, one of the last expected to take the ball on short rest in the postseason, one of the last judged by the same merits as the aces who came before him. He will be joined in Cooperstown down the road by Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander. All three embraced modern analytical and technological advancements to stay afloat as the game changed around them.

Even in decline, as he dealt with repeated injuries to his back and his shoulder, Kershaw was remarkably skilled at preventing runs. Since 2016, when Kershaw suffered a herniated disc in his back, only eight pitchers have accumulated more wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs. He dealt with back problems in the subsequent seasons. He damaged his elbow in 2021. His shoulder bothered him throughout 2023. A year later, he missed October because of lingering pain that necessitated surgeries to his toe and his knee.

It was the receipt for spending his 20s carving up hitters at Chavez Ravine. Kershaw debuted with the Dodgers on May 25, 2008. He was two months past his 20th birthday. The team had chosen him seventh overall in the draft two years earlier. He rocketed through the minors, propelled by a relentless drive, an explosive fastball and a picturesque curveball. The bender became famous when Vin Scully dubbed it "Public Enemy No. 1" after a spring training outing in 2008. Kershaw spent the rest of his prime as the face of the franchise.

The curveball drew comparisons to Sandy Koufax. But the pitch that completed Kershaw's arsenal did not appear until the summer of 2009, when he adopted a slider. The combination of his fastball and slider, usually directed toward the lower glove-side quadrant of the plate, has confounded hitters ever since. "It's precision pitching," Scherzer told me. "He just doesn't miss. That's what makes him who he is. He doesn't need velo. He doesn't need anything. He just needs precision."

Kershaw won his first Cy Young award in 2011. He added two more over the next three seasons. In 2014, he overcame a torn teres major muscle in his back to finish with a 21-3 record and a 1.77 ERA -- enough to merit the MVP trophy, the first pitcher to win the award in the National League since Bob Gibson in 1968.

He became the backbone of a perennial contender in Los Angeles. He impressed peers with the dedication to his five-day routine and the smoldering intensity he brought to the mound. His teammates feared speaking with him on the days he started. He operated in isolation, forgoing conversation so he could study scouting reports and toss a baseball against the clubhouse walls. His faith in his routine carried him through perennial regular-season success and earned him respect among his rivals.

"He's, like, my favorite guy in baseball," long-time National League rival Paul Goldschmidt told me. "My favorite player. I hate to say that about a pitcher. I kind of joke, like, I'd spend money to buy his jersey."

New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole told me he thought Kershaw was "the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time."Added former San Francisco Giants rival Madison Bumgarner, "I think he's the best pitcher to ever play, myself."

The Dodgers reached the postseason in each of Kershaw's final 13 seasons in Los Angeles. He became October's central figure, a pitcher defined by his quest for a World Series championship. The Dodgers used him on short rest and pushed him deeper into games than his peers. They relied upon him, some teammates felt, more than any other team relied on any other player in this era. In the postseason, former Dodger Alex Wood told me, Kershaw shouldered a workload "that no one else would even be asked to do."

At times with the Dodgers, Kershaw buckled underneath the weight. He stumbled in the final game of the team's postseason in 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2019. In the 2017 World Series, facing a Houston Astros lineup later revealed to be using an illegal sign-stealing scheme, he surrendered six runs in 4 2/3 innings in the series-swinging fifth game. In 2019, he surrendered a pair of crushing home runs to the upstart Washington Nationals in the National League Division Series. Those failures obscured all the successes he achieved in October: Pitching on short rest to keep the season alive in 2015, appearing in relief on one day of rest to close out a series in 2016, striking out 11 Astros in Game 1 of that fateful 2017 World Series.

It was not until 2020 that Kershaw could experience the relief and the release of a championship. The Dodgers ended their World Series drought during the Covid-shortened campaign. The sight of Kershaw running to celebrate with his teammates became the lasting image of the season. For weeks afterward, he blared Queen's "We Are The Champions" on his stereo system at home in Dallas. After he won, he realized how much the chase had hounded him. "You don't know the burden that you carry," he later said. "Because at some point, you just get used to the weight on your shoulders."

With the weight lifted, Kershaw found himself able to enjoy his craft more in these final seasons, even as his body rebelled against him. Teammates noticed he was looser, chattier -- even willing to make small talk on the days he started. He began to speak more openly about the possibility of retirement in the winter after 2020. He laid out three annual choices: Stay with the Dodgers, sign with the hometown Rangers or hang up his cleats. He thought hard about signing with Texas after the frustrating ending to 2023, but opted to return to Los Angeles.

Kershaw did not regret the choice. He made only seven starts in 2024 and did not appear in the postseason. A nettlesome toe injury scuttled his season. But he thrilled in the team's World Series run. When Walker Buehler volunteered to appear in relief in the deciding game, one thought crossed his mind: What would Clayton do? And so Buehler grabbed his glove and closed out a championship. Kershaw limped on his busted toe to join the dogpile.

He could play a more prominent part in this October run for the Dodgers, who have not yet clinched the National League West. Or his outing on Friday could truly be his final time at Dodger Stadium. All of those in the ballpark, especially the big fellow on the mound, should take some time to savor it.

Clayton Kershaw earned this moment, and now walks away on his own terms