Last night around 10:30 p.m., Team Italy defeated Team Mexico 9-1, which means both the United States and Italy advance to the quarter finals.
The U.S. is 3-1 so far in the World Baseball Classic. They swept past Brazil and Great Britain, but a closer game against Mexico ended in Team USA’s favor by a final score of 5-3. Aaron Judge threw out a runner going to third base on a single, and he and Roman Anthony each provided long shots in the third inning that gave the U.S. a five-run lead. The next day, Team USA lost against Italy, 8-6.
Manager Mark DeRosa made a crucial mistake setting their line-up against Italy, starting some of their bench players. Now, the bench players on Team USA are not true bench players as you’d expect watching Major League Baseball. Emmanuel Rivera, who played for the Orioles last year, and Kevin Pillar of the Blue Jays, who is a veteran and used to be a starter, are included in this group. Many of Team USA’s bench players are All Stars from the 2025 season, including Pete-Crow-Armstrong, the starting centerfielder for the Chicago Cubs, Will Smith, a catcher for the L.A. Dodgers, and many more.
DeRosa joined MLB Network for an interview to talk about his approach for facing Italy. He incorrectly said that the U.S. had already clinched a spot in the quarterfinal and discussed giving bench players like Paul Goldschmidt and Gunnar Henderson a start. “We want to win this game, even though our ticket’s punched to the quarterfinals.”He claimed after the game that he misspoke and miscalculated. “I misspoke… completely misread the calculations.”
Italy defeated Mexico in their final game of pool play, allowing Team USA to avoid any tiebreaker scenarios that could have left them out of the quarterfinals.
Logan Webb is scheduled to make his second start of The Classic against Canada at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 13. Webb pitched four innings of one-run and one-hit ball against Team Brazil last week. Webb’s only hit given up was a home run on the second pitch of the game against Brazil’s right fielder Lucas Ramirez.
USA will lose out on the back-to-back reining Cy Young award winner Tarik Skubal. The Detroit Tigers ace is a free agent after the 2026 season and is expected to be the biggest free agent name. He might get the largest amount of money for a pitcher in history with a contract expected to exceed $350 million. Skubal has returned to the Tigers’ spring training following his appearance against Great Britain as he gets ready for his biggest year of his life. Skubal admitted the decision was “one of the tougher” ones of his career, noting he “didn’t expect these types of emotions to run through my brain.”
But the good news is for Team USA is, if they win against Canada on Friday, they’ll have the National League Cy Young winner from 2025, Paul Skenes going the semi-finals. He is another young stud in the making. If they make it to the finals of the WBC, they will have Noah McClean on the mound.
One of the bigger names for the U.S. is Bryce Harper, who recently has struggled. He’s batting just .200 over the course of the whole tournament. He has played in all four games for the U.S. and has had sixteen at bats with just three hits.
The 2026 Team USA World Baseball Classic roster features sixty-five combined All Stars, making it one of the most decorated teams in the tournament. Led by team captain Aaron Judge, the 30-man roster also includes 20 Silver Sluggers and 12 Gold Gloves. The team has 22 individual MLB All Stars on the roster, the highest of any team in the 2026 tournament. Orioles star Gunnar Henderson leads Team USA with a .500 batting average and is one of the many young studs on this roster that includes Paul Skenes, Roman Anthony, Bobby Witt Jr., and many more.
Sophomore DeMatha student Blake Wentworth thinks Gunnar is one of the best in the game. “Yea, he is a stud. I believe he is the best [player] in the tournament after that performance.” It’s safe to say they will be fine in upcoming World Baseball Classic tournaments.