For Dodgers and Clayton Kershaw, one inquiry remains — what would be an ideal next step?

LOS ANGELES — The phantom of Clayton Kershaw's conceivable last days with the Los Angeles Dodgers waited, much the same as the light fog that drifted around Dodger Stadium at sunset Sunday night.

Kershaw can decay two player alternatives before next season, in this way making himself a free specialist, and has three days to choose. Despite whether he does, Kershaw's present association will look to answer an indispensable inquiry: Where should the Dodgers make strides?

"I don't have a clue, to answer your inquiry," Kershaw said. "I don't know what there is to be finished. We had such a great amount of profundity at each position."

Putting it another way, how do the Dodgers go from playing in the World Series to winning it?

"At this moment, to make sense of where we have to go, that is an intense one," administrator Dave Roberts said. "We possess a great deal of energy for that. You're looking at inlaying and how things go, and not every person will be back."

"Not every person" could incorporate these free specialists: infielders Manny Machado and Brian Dozier, catcher Yasmani Grandal and left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu.

The Dodgers procured Machado and Dozier at mid-season to give infield profundity. Machado turned into the beginning shortstop and completed the season with 37 grand slams and 107 RBI — a large portion of them for the Baltimore Orioles. Be that as it may, spectators trust Machado's operator will request a $300 million contract, and the Dodgers are reluctant to make such arrangements.

In the event that Machado leaves, Corey Seager could recover his beginning position at shortstop. The National League's new kid on the block of the year in 2016, Seager played only 26 diversions this prior year experiencing Tommy John medical procedure in May and hip medical procedure in August. The Dodgers foresee Seager to be prepared for spring preparing.

Gained to determine the Dodgers' issues at a respectable halfway point, Dozier batted only .182 out of 47 diversions before Kiké Hernandez turned into the starter in late August. Grandal contributed 24 homers and 68 RBI amid the normal season however his crummy execution in the postseason did not encourage his prospects.

With Austin Barnes' hostile issues this season, the Dodgers could look for another veteran on the off chance that they trust small time catchers Keibert Ruiz and Will Smith are not prepared. MLB.com positions Ruiz second among the group's prospects, with Smith fifth.

Ryu ran 7-3 with a 1.97 earned-run normal notwithstanding missing three months on account of a torn crotch muscle. Shoulder, hip and elbow wounds have tormented the Korean for as far back as five seasons, and he turns 31 in March.

In the event that both Ryu and Kershaw leave, the Dodgers could supplant them with a mix of left-handers Julio Urias and Alex Wood and right-hander Ross Stripling. Wood won 16 diversions and made the NL All-Star group in 2017, while Stripling assumed the misfortune in the current year's All-Star Game.

Urias, Wood and Stripling have a place with a center that incorporates youth in Cody Bellinger, Max Muncy, Joc Pederson, Yasiel Puig and Walker Buehler; veterans, for example, Justin Turner, Matt Kemp and Rich Hill and flexible utilitymen Hernandez and Chris Taylor.

"You need to understand that we are a great group to get the opportunity to go to the World Series two years in succession," Kershaw said. "It probably won't be a work force thing. It may very well be a play better thing."

Roberts communicated that certainty all the more earnestly.

"I think the way of life, the players — the vast dominant part — are set up," he said.

"The bolt positively is pointing the correct way. Spring will be around the bend. I anticipate that us will be back here one year from now, yet celebrating on the field."