Quick Hitters
Dodgers, Kershaw extend deadline on opt-out decision
LOS ANGELES — Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers want some more time to consider their possible future together.
The three-time NL Cy Young Award winner and the team agreed to extend the deadline on his opt-out decision by 40 hours until 1 p.m. PDT Friday.
The team made the announcement a couple hours before the initial 9 p.m. PDT deadline Thursday.
Kershaw can opt out of the last two years and $65 million of his contract to become a free agent for the first time in an 11-year big league career spent entirely with the Dodgers. They drafted him in 2006.
If he opts out, he could negotiate with any team, including the Dodgers.
He signed a $215 million, seven-year contract in January 2014 that calls for salaries of $32 million next year and $33 million in 2020.
Kershaw was 9-5 with a 2.73 ERA this season.
At 30, he remains one of baseball’s premier pitchers. But the lefthanded ace had two separate stints on the disabled list for the fourth time in five years this season, and his fastball velocity has decreased.
Expectations will be set for the Arizona Western men’s basketball team after the upcoming seasonopening tournament.
The Matadors will face some early challenges to see just what should be expected coming into the new season.
AWC will open the regular season this weekend in a tournament at the City College of San Francisco. The Mats will open with Yuba College (25-6 in 201718) on Friday at 4 p.m. and move on from there against some of the better teams in California.
“We want to play good teams,” AWC coach Charles Harral said. “We have a competitive schedule. It would be nice to kind of go away from home and play in an environment that maybe we’re not as familiar with. If you get to the national tournament, that’s what you have to do. We’ll continue to work. I wanted to play a tournament early and play as many road games as I could.”
The opening weekend of the season will give AWC a bit of a sink or swim experience, but expectations are high for the Matadors coming off of a 23-10 season. Last season the team won a Region I title before falling in the final minutes to Salt Lake in the District Final.
Coming into the 2018 season, AWC is 17th in the NJ-