Looks like it doesn't. The closest thing apparently is through invocation from term.
http://linux.die.net/man/1/claws-mail
But this still launches the whole thing. There's an --exit switch but I don't know how to make it launch when claws is finished checking mail.
Then there's the issue of getting it to play notifications properly. Mine doesn't play a sound even when I explicitly tell it to do so (notification plugin).