Clayton Kershaw retired last season after one of the greatest careers we’ve ever seen from a left-handed pitcher (and we don’t really need that qualifier either, as there aren’t a ton of righties who were better). He went out on top as a World Series champion and his final outing ended with him getting out of a major jam as a reliever.
Still, apparently he had one last itch to scratch. On Thursday, he joined Team USA for the 2026 World Baseball Classic.
Last regular season, Kershaw pitched to a 3.36 ERA in 112 ⅔ innings. He got knocked around in his NLDS outing and wasn’t used in the NLCS, but he recorded that gigantic out in Game 3 of the World Series. He’s clearly capable of getting a few outs and USA isn’t adding him to a loaded roster to just have him play mascot. He’ll see action at some point.
“I am not going to pitch to Shohei (Ohtani) in any meaningful game,” Kershaw told The Athletic of his former teammate. “I’ll tell you that right now. He would hit it so far off me right now.”
Don’t expect Kershaw to be a starter for the team. Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes are the headliners and fellow All-Stars like Logan Webb, Joe Ryan and Matthew Boyd are also on the squad in addition to very talented youngster Nolan McLean and his Mets teammate Clay Holmes. All will be building themselves up for the grind of being in a rotation full time in the majors in 2026 while Kershaw is around for, seemingly, one last go-round in uniform.
It’ll be interesting to see how Kershaw is deployed. The talented bullpen includes Mason Miller, David Bednar, Griffin Jax, Garrett Whitlock, Garrett Cleavinger and Gabe Speier.
Oh and the lineup is absolutely stacked.
The 2026 World Baseball Classic begins pool play on March 5 and concludes with the finals on March 17.
