Clayton Kershaw’s Major League Baseball career might be over, but the future Hall of Fame pitcher isn’t quite done playing yet.

In what will be his swan song to the sport, Kershaw will represent Team USA at this spring’s World Baseball Classic, USA Baseball announced Thursday. It will mark Kershaw’s first time participating in a WBC, after he was forced to withdraw from the 2023 tournament because of issues securing required insurance coverage.

“I’m just really excited,” Kershaw told MLB Network after the announcement. “It’s gonna be so fun.”

Last September, the 37-year-old Kershaw announced that he would retire at the end of the 2025 season, drawing a decorated 18-season career spent entirely with the Dodgers to a close.

Kershaw went out on top, finishing the regular season with an 11-2 record and 3.36 ERA before making two appearances in the Dodgers’ postseason run to a second-consecutive World Series –– including his memorable escape from a 12th-inning jam in Game 3 of the Fall Classic, which proved to be the final appearance of his MLB career.

Thursday’s announcement, however, ensures that last October won’t be Kershaw’s final time pitching competitively.

Kershaw said that he received a call earlier this offseason from Team USA manager Mark DeRosa inquiring about his WBC availability.

At first, Kershaw joked, he thought DeRosa was offering a chance to help coach.

“Then he mentioned playing again,” Kershaw said, “and I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t have a whole lot of interest in picking up a baseball again. But I started throwing 10-12 days ago, and it doesn’t feel terrible. So I think I’ll be OK.”

After never seriously considering WBC participation for most of his career, Kershaw will get an opportunity in this year’s WBC that was denied to him in 2023. That spring, Kershaw was set to represent Team USA for the first time in his career, something he repeatedly stated he was “really excited about.”

But he ultimately had to back out after he was unable to secure insurance to cover his Dodgers contract –– a requisite for all WBC participants from MLB clubs (because of the injury risk the tournament poses) and one that can often prove difficult for players with long injury histories (including Kershaw, who had battled back and elbow issues in the years before that tournament).

“It just didn’t work out,” a disappointed Kershaw said at the time. “I really wanted to do it.”

This year, that dynamic will no longer be a factor, allowing Kershaw to serve in what he said will be an “insurance policy” role for a Team USA pitching staff headlined by Tarik Skubal, Paul Skenes and Logan Webb.

“If anybody needs a breather, or if they need me to pitch back-to-back-to-back, or if they don’t need me to pitch at all, I’m just there to be there,” he said.

When asked about the possibility of potentially facing his former Dodger teammate and Team Japan star Shohei Ohtani, Kershaw added with a laugh:

“I think something will have gone terribly wrong if I have to pitch against Team Japan in the finals or something.”

Instead, the three-time Cy Young Award winner and likely first-ballot Hall of Famer simply expressed gratitude for what will be one last run before heading off into retirement.

“I just want to be part of this group,” Kershaw said. “I learned a long time ago, you just want to be part of great things. And this team seems like a really fun, awesome group.”