Clayton Kershaw has not yet had a chance to pitch in the World Baseball Classic. Patrick Smith / Getty Images
Clayton Kershaw hasn’t thrown his final pitch just yet. The longtime Los Angeles Dodgers franchise icon, who announced his retirement at the end of the 2025 season, will represent the United States in the upcoming World Baseball Classic.
Kershaw’s surprise inclusion beefs up a Team USA pitching staff that already includes both reigning Cy Young Award winners in Detroit’s Tarik Skubal and Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes. It also represents a last bit of unfinished business for the three-time World Series champion Kershaw, who previously tried to represent his country in the 2023 edition of the tournament but had to withdraw due to insurance policy issues. When that time came and went, Kershaw called it “probably my last chance to get to do it.”
Now he will join a collection of stars seeking to improve upon the team’s second-place finish in 2023. Team USA will open its pool play schedule against Brazil on March 6 at Daikin Park.
The 37-year-old Kershaw returned from offseason toe and knee surgeries in 2025 to put up a 3.36 ERA in 23 appearances in his final season in the majors, logging the second-most innings (112 2/3) for the Dodgers before making the team’s postseason roster.
The year marked a chance for Kershaw to go out on his terms rather than because of an injury, as he proved he was all the way back from surgery that repaired the capsule in his left shoulder before the 2024 season. His final appearance at Dodger Stadium came during the World Series, when he entered in extra innings of Game 3 against the Toronto Blue Jays and induced a groundout to get his team out of a bases-loaded jam. Kershaw was in the bullpen warming up to go in when Yoshinobu Yamamoto got the final outs of what turned out to be Kershaw’s third World Series title.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner said in the hours that followed he didn’t know what the future held for him. Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman offered Kershaw a gig in the team’s front office, but Kershaw said, “I don’t think I have any full-time jobs in my future. Except full-time dad.”
Kershaw and his wife, Ellen, welcomed their fifth child, Chloe Peach Kershaw, on Dec. 19.
The Athletic reported last week that Kershaw is a top studio target for NBC and Peacock’s upcoming MLB rights package.
That venture will be on hold, for now, as Kershaw dons his Sketchers cleats at least one more time.
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