World Baseball Classic roster takeaways: Team USA’s elite pitching, Puerto Rico’s missing stars, Team Brazil’s return and more

Throughout the event’s history, top-tier non-American pitchers have generally shown more interest in participating (Alcantara, Shohei Ohtani, Félix Hernández). But before this edition, the United States struggled to convince its aces to commit. Remember, USA skipper Mark DeRosa entered the 2023 tourney with a rotation composed of Merrill Kelly, Kyle Freeland, Lance Lynn, Miles Mikolas, Brady Singer, Adam Wainwright and Nick Martinez. Combined, that unit had zero Cy Youngs and just five top-three finishes, four of which were Wainwrights. The 2026 team has six Cy Youngs — to be fair, three of them belong to the retired Clayton Kershaw — and 11 top-three finishes.

It’s an incredibly encouraging development for this tournament that the most dominant hurlers in the world are willing to alter their preseason routines to compete on the global stage. — Mintz

Team Italy is a fascinating dark horse

In 2023, the Italian squad showed well, battling its way out of the Taiwan pool before getting bounced by Japan in the quarterfinals. Impressive as that was, Italy’s roster was far from full-strength. Because their pool-play round was halfway across the world, the club struggled to convince Italian-American big-league regulars to opt in.

This year, Italy’s pool is in Houston, which appears to have been an absolute game-changer. Vinnie Pasquantino, one of two position players back from the 2023 team, said he spent a ton of time recruiting for Team Italy. Those efforts have paid off.

Italy’s starting lineup will be one of just a handful in the tournament entirely made up of active big leaguers. Pasquantino is the biggest bat, but he’ll be flanked by powerful sluggers such as Dominic Canzone (142 OPS+ last year) and Jac Caglianone (former top prospect with huge juice). Jakob Marsee is coming off a stellar debut with the Marlins. Kyle Teel should be the White Sox’s Opening Day catcher. Jon Berti is a versatile vet. This lineup has a lot to like.

Even more importantly, the Italians have a greatly improved pitching staff. Aaron Nola is easily the most accomplished hurler to ever appear for Italy in international competition. Michael Lorenzen is a solid No. 2. Alek Jacob, Matt Festa, Kyle Nicolas and Greg Weissert are all legit big-league relievers. They’ll need to topple Mexico or the United States to emerge from a tough group, but this squad has the sauce to make that happen. — Mintz

Puerto Rico will be without many of its stars

News broke last week that Francisco Lindor and Carlos Correa, Puerto Rico’s two best and most impactful players, had failed to secure the necessary insurance to participate in the WBC. Eleventh-hour appeals were made, with the island’s baseball federation even threatening to withdraw from the tournament. But in the end, those desperate attempts proved futile, as both stars were left off the official roster. Then Javy Báez, about whom there was suspiciously little insurance scuttlebutt, was also not included due to a previously unreported suspension stemming from a positive marijuana test during the previous tournament.

It’s all a massive bummer for Puerto Rico, set to host WBC games for the first time since 2013. Between Nolan Arenado, Edwin Díaz, Seth Lugo and Heliot Ramos, this club still has enough talent to win an evenly balanced group, but they’ll dearly miss Lindor, Correa and Báez. — Mintz

Team USA’s final two roster spots revealed

While the vast majority of Team USA had been revealed over the past few months, there were two spots unsettled on the 30-man roster before Thursday’s announcement. It was a pretty safe bet that it would be one more position player and one more pitcher, but there were questions about what genre of hitter and hurler manager Mark DeRosa would prefer. Would Team USA go with a third catcher in support of Cal Raleigh and Will Smith? Would they target a player with defensive versatility, another Ernie Clement type — or one with more offensive upside? Did they need another starting pitcher or another high-leverage reliever?

The answers: first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and right-hander Michael Wacha. Goldschmidt — still a free agent entering his age-38 season — returns to the roster as one of five holdovers from the 2023 team, joining Smith, Bobby Witt Jr., Kyle Schwarber and right-hander David Bednar. Goldschmidt gives DeRosa a veteran presence off the bench, one who can still crush left-handers. He’ll either pinch-hit against lefty relievers or garner a start against a left-handed starter before making way for superior options later in the game.

Wacha is a sensible addition as an experienced and dependable right-hander who gives DeRosa another pitcher capable of covering multiple innings. Navigating the various restrictions imposed by major-league clubs and pitch-count regulations is an enormous variable in this tournament, so affording the manager a bevy of arms who can provide length is smart roster-building. And while this is Wacha’s WBC debut, he does have Team USA experience, having played on the 2011 Collegiate National Team.

The Goldschmidt/Wacha duo might lack the flash of some of the younger, more ascendant participants in the tournament, but these two fill clear roles for Team USA, so their inclusions should come as no real surprise. — Shusterman

Team Brazil makes its return

Of the 20 teams competing in this year’s Classic, 19 are holdovers from the 2023 edition. The lone exception is Team Brazil, which claimed one of the final spots in the tournament during the qualification round last March and is effectively replacing Team China, which failed to qualify this time. This is Brazil’s second appearance in the Classic, having last participated in 2013, when it went winless in pool play (but had a lead through seven innings against Samurai Japan). That means Brazil is seeking its first WBC victory in this year’s tournament, and the team will have at least four opportunities to make that happen as the massive underdogs in Pool B in Houston, which also features USA, Mexico, Italy and Great Britain.

Brazil’s squad includes just five players currently in major-league organizations, one of the lowest totals of any team in the tournament. But this roster is not without intrigue. The most interesting throughline is the trio of players with high-profile big-league fathers. Lucas Ramirez, 20, is one of the five affiliated players as an outfielder in the Angels organization, and he’s the son of 12-time All-Star Manny Ramirez. Infielder Dante Bichette Jr. is the son of four-time All-Star Dante and older brother of new Met Bo.

And perhaps most fascinating of all, 17-year-old Joseph Contreras is the son of 11-year major-league pitcher and 2005 World Series champion Jose Contreras. Joseph is the youngest player in the tournament and also a top prospect in this summer’s draft, a talented right-handed pitcher at a Georgia high school who is committed to Vanderbilt. A strong outing against one of the star-studded lineups in Pool B would be a unique and exciting way to boost his draft stock — and perhaps help Team Brazil make history on the international stage. — Shusterman

Plenty of prospects to watch

Of the 600 players named to WBC rosters, a little more than half — 305, to be exact — are currently members of major-league organizations. But only about half of those are projected to play in the majors in 2026; there’s also a gigantic population of ballplayers from all levels of the minor leagues. That means that beyond the overwhelming amount of established star power on these rosters, there’s a plethora of prospects scattered throughout the WBC player pool who will have the opportunity to raise their profiles on the international stage.

There are some obvious headliners, such as Mets right-hander Nolan McLean, the lone rookie-eligible player on Team USA, and former No. 1 pick and Guardians top prospect Travis Bazzana, the biggest star on Team Australia. There are also a few other top-100 types who could make an impact in the majors sooner rather than later, such as Marlins outfielder Owen Caissie (Canada) and Nationals catcher Harry Ford (Great Britain).

Here are a few other notable names who are a bit further from the majors but worth monitoring once the tournament begins:

Mariners INF Michael Arroyo (Colombia): Arroyo has been one of the most productive hitters in the minors over the past two years, but he sometimes gets lost in the shuffle in a Seattle farm system loaded with high-profile position-player prospects. An undersized, right-handed hitter without a clear defensive home — he has mostly played second base but might fit best in left-field long term — he doesn’t have the explosive physical tools typically associated with premium prospects. But he raked his way to Double-A last year as a 20-year-old, and he’s on track to factor into Seattle’s lineup in some form in 2027.

Brewers INF Andrew Fischer (Italy): Fischer ranked 20th on my 2025 draft rankings after a prolific college career at three different schools. Milwaukee evidently agreed with that assessment, selecting him 20th overall and quickly sending him to High-A, where he had a strong pro debut. It’s unclear how much playing time Fischer will get on a surprisingly crowded Team Italy roster, but if he gets some at-bats, they promise to be highly entertaining.

Athletics LHP Wei-En Lin (Chinese Taipei): Lin, who turned 20 in November, was a strikeout machine in the lower levels last season, and he exhibited solid command as well. This fun fact says it all: Only three pitchers with at least 80 minor-league innings had a higher K-minus-BB rate than Lin’s 27.1% in 2025: Trey Yesavage, Payton Tolle and Jonah Tong. Pretty good!

Yankees RHP Elmer Rodriguez (Puerto Rico): Acquired from Boston a year ago in exchange for catcher Carlos Narvaez, Rodriguez had a terrific first season in the Yankees organization, striking out 176 batters in 150 innings with a 2.58 ERA and climbing all the way to Triple-A. He’s still pretty far down New York’s starting pitching depth chart, but don’t be surprised if he pitches his way into the major-league mix at some point in 2026. — Shusterman