Clayton Kershaw's Mental Reason for Not Visiting Camelback Ranch Yet

Team USA played exhibition games against the San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies before leaving for the start of the World Baseball Classic, which had Clayton Kershaw in the same proximity as his former Los Angeles Dodgers teammates.

Kershaw retired after 18 seasons with the Dodgers but is temporarily back to pitching in order to check off what he's deemed a "bucket list" accomplishment of representing the United States in the WBC.

While there are plenty of emotional ties between Kershaw and the Dodgers, the future Hall of Famer said he didn't want to visit Camelback Ranch this spring due to being early into a new phase of his life, per Dylan Hernández of the California Post.

“I haven’t been over to CBR,” he said. “I just thought about it. I miss it, I miss the guys. So I think it’s probably just better, at least this first year, for me, like mentally, to just kind of stay away for a full year, just for spring training. I’ll go out to L.A. at some point, for sure. I think just the mental side of it, for me, to really break away, it would be hard to go.”

The Dodgers regularly welcome former players to Spring Training workouts each year, and the likes of Rick Honeycutt, Orel Hershiser, Maury Wills, Chase Utley and Eric Karros have been among those to get in uniform and provide instruction.

President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman already extended an invite to Kershaw to join the Dodgers front office in any capacity he wished. Kershaw was appreciative of the opportunity but said his focus for now is on being present with his family in Dallas.

Though, that is being paused for up to nearly two weeks if Team USA reaches the World Baseball Classic championship game at loanDepot Park on Tuesday, March 17.

Clayton Kershaw's role with Team USA

Kershaw revealed he initially thought manager Mark DeRosa was contacting him for a special assistant role or something of the sort with Team USA. Once there was some clarification, the 37-year-old quickly made his decision to join their pitching staff.

In doing, Kershaw has voiced a willingness to take on any role Team USA needs. He's beginning in the bullpen, which is a change from Kershaw's storied career with the Dodgers, but represents the same role he just held in the postseason.

Kershaw's Team USA debut in exhibition play was a rough outing as he surrendered a leadoff home run and pitched just two-thirds of an inning.