Six WBC storylines in international event chock-full of star power
A taste of October in March.Some international flavor baked into the national pastime, coming on the heels of an entertaining Olympics.
Welcome to the 2026 World Baseball Classic.For the sixth edition of the tournament, 20 nations have been split into four pools of five teams attempting to qualify for the eight-team, single-elimination knockout stage.Hearts and bats (and hopefully not patellar tendons) will be broken.
Bars across the world will be busy.Fans tired of spring training exhibitions will be sated.With the tournament just underway and the Americans on deck to debut Friday, here is a look at the storylines that might define the international competition:For the 2023 championship game that it would lose, Team USA turned to zero-time All-Star Merrill Kelly.
No disrespect meant toward the reliable righty, but the quality of the American arms has escalated.Both reigning Cy Young Award winners, Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes, will don the Red, White and Blue.Persistent Cy Young contender Logan Webb is the best No.
3 in the field.With Skubal (set to make one start) and Skenes (two) expected to participate but preserve their arms, Mets spin god Nolan McLean could grab the spotlight and is lined up to pitch in the championship game.
Mason Miller’s heat will be waiting at the back of the bullpen.The Americans have bashed their way to one WBC title and again feature a dazzling array of offensive talent led by Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr., Cal Raleigh, Bryce Harper and Gunnar Henderson.Do they now have enough firepower on the mound to avenge their loss to Japan three years ago?Samurai Japan is aiming for back-to-back titles and a fourth in total.
No other country has won more than once.Japan also grabbed the most recent Olympic gold medal, emerging as the class of the international circuit.Team Shohei Ohtani will be star-studded, though the two-way unicorn will solely hit (and not, say, strike out Mike Trout) this time around.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto will anchor a r...