Kershaw's agent is probably furiously trying to figure out which will land him more money -- a long term deal on the open market, or the $70m for the next 2 years plus whatever extension the Dodgers will give him, plus whatever he can manage after that.

He might also lose a little bit of endorsement value by jumping teams at this point, but he never hit the endorsement circuit too heavy, so that probably isn't much of a factor.

A year ago this would have been a no-brainer to opt out, but now there may not be teams willing to commit big money to him long term, given his declining velocity, injury problems, and repeated postseason fail.

My guess is that he wants the Dodgers to extend him another $25m per year for 3 years beyond the current contract (5 total), making him 35 when that's all over.

Dodgers probably want to do something like 2 years, $20m each.

The question is if a team like the Yankees will say "fuck it" and just overpay in order to score him and bolster the team even further. They couldn't be too happy about falling short twice in a row in the AL playoffs.