The longtime pitcher for the Dodgers will make one last curtain call for Team USA before hanging up his cleats.
After winning a second straight World Series championship with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Clayton Kershaw was thought to have thrown his last pitch. However, the star pitcher isn’t ready to totally hang it up yet. Major League Baseball announced on Thursday that Kershaw will pitch for Team USA in the upcoming World Baseball Classic beginning on March 4. The international tournament will essentially be a send-off tour for Kershaw, and it will mark his first career WBC appearance.
Kershaw had announced his planned retirement after the 2025 season, and his final appearance for the Dodgers was in Game 3 out of the bullpen in a high-leverage situation in the 12th inning and kept the Toronto Blue Jays scoreless, helping his team eventually win six innings later. He finished the 2025 season 11-2 with a 3.36 ERA and 84 strikeouts. He will finish his MLB career with a 2.53 career ERA and 3,052 strikeouts to place him in an elusive group of 3,000 strikeouts pitchers in league history.
Here is the full story from Dodgers Roundtable writer Joe Rutland on Kershaw’s final curtain call.
Kershaw spent his entire 18-year career in Los Angeles and was used in his final postseason effectively as an emergency option, which is his expected role on Team USA. He was initially slated to pitch in the 2023 WBC, but due to an extensive injury history, he had to opt out after failing to find someone to insure his contract. After hanging up his cleats following the WBC, his next important phone call from the sport should be Cooperstown, N.Y. as a likely first-ballot Hall of Famer when his time comes.