Former Los Angeles Dodgers star and future Hall of Fame pitcher Clayton Kershaw made his first appearance for Team USA on Wednesday against the Colorado Rockies in an exhibition game. There’s also a chance that it was his last appearance for the United States.
As teams get set to compete in the World Baseball Classic, Kershaw is trying to achieve one last thing in his baseball career by helping Team USA win it all. After his appearance, MLB insider Jesse Rogers revealed what Americans can expect for Kershaw in the tournament.
“DeRosa said he’ll be used as a ‘break glass in case of emergency’ guy during the tournament,” Rogers wrote on X.
In essence, don’t expect Kershaw to play at all. Team USA is favored to win their group, so an emergency situation shouldn’t happen until the United States reaches an elimination game. Even then, with the plethora of pitchers the Americans have, things would likely need to go very far south to see him appear.
Even if he doesn’t play, Kershaw is grateful for the chance to represent his country and hopefully win the title.
“It’s been a blast, man,” Kershaw told Rockies broadcaster Ryan Spilborghs. “It’s a bucket-list thing for me to get to do this and be a part of this group. … It means a lot, you know? I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, especially after watching the Winter Olympics and seeing the hockey guys and girls — it just feels like it’s a really cool thing to do and to be able to win gold and have ‘USA’ on our chest, it’s pretty special.”
Team USA takes on Brazil in its first World Baseball Classic game on Friday at 8 p.m.
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