How the US (finally) got its best pitchers on board for the World Baseball Classic
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 5 hours ago
- 6 min read
By STEPHEN J. NESBITT / THE ATHLETIC
Early last season, Kevin Roach, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ video coordinator, approached the team’s young ace, Paul Skenes, and asked him if he was interested in pitching for the U.S. team in the World Baseball Classic.
Skenes is exactly the type of person who would want to represent the United States on the world stage. Before he was a Cy Young Award winner and one of the best right-handed pitchers in MLB, he was an Air Force cadet who once left baseball practice to chew out his peers who were not standing for the national anthem.
But, being a top American pitcher, he is also precisely the type of player who has historically turned down such an opportunity.
As mighty as the World Baseball Classic has become, one of the tournament’s most obvious holes has been how many of the game’s greatest American pitchers have not participated: Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Zack Greinke, Chris Sale, Jacob deGrom and Gerrit Cole among them.
In years past, the U.S. team operated with a “B” team pitching staff. The country’s pitching stars — or their teams — chose the perceived safety of spring training back fields rather than risk injury while facing Japan or the Dominican Republic. So the question Roach had for Skenes had often returned a disappointing answer.
“Would you want to pitch for Team USA?” Roach said.
“Heck yeah, I would,” Skenes replied. “Come on!”
It wasn’t so much a choice made in the moment as it was one Skenes manifested at 14, watching U.S. outfielder Adam Jones rob the Dominican Republic’s Manny Machado of a home run in the 2017 WBC. “That was something I decided a long time ago,” Skenes said recently. “If I had a chance to do it, I would.”
Roach, who works with the U.S. team, messaged its manager, Mark DeRosa. Before long, the team had announced Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees and Skenes of the Pirates as the hitting and pitching pillars of its WBC roster. Landing Skenes “put the world on notice that we want our best representing Team USA,” said the team’s general manager, Michael Hill.
More of the best kept agreeing to play until, for the first time, the team had a pitching staff to match its star-studded lineup. Skenes and Tarik Skubal form a two-headed beast of reigning Cy Young winners. Logan Webb and Joe Ryan round out the rotation, though Ryan’s lower-back inflammation could put his participation in jeopardy. The back end of the bullpen is occupied by Mason Miller, David Bednar and Garrett Whitlock. Even 37-year-old retiree Clayton Kershaw is in for mop-up duty. At long last, the U.S. pitching staff truly resembles a collection of the country’s best arms.
“Wow,” Bednar said.
“Insane,” Ryan said.
“It’s going to be fun,” Skenes said.
Three years ago, the U.S. starters were Merrill Kelly, Lance Lynn, Adam Wainwright, Kyle Freeland and Miles Mikolas. Japan had Shohei Ohtani, Yu Darvish, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shota Imanaga and Roki Sasaki. No pitcher on the U.S. staff received even a down-ballot Cy Young vote the previous season.
When DeRosa began recruiting for the 2026 Classic, which begins March 5, he sensed a groundswell of interest from American players. Perhaps that is only natural when the lasting image from the previous WBC is Ohtani striking out Mike Trout of the United States to win it.
In 2023, DeRosa cast a wide net, phoning one player after another. This time, he took as many calls as he made. Not every pitcher said yes, but enough did to challenge the narrative that, as DeRosa put it, “for whatever reason, in the United States, our best arms don’t show up.” The Ringer’s Ben Lindbergh calculated that compared with the U.S. pitching staffs from the past four Classics, this one is at least 71% better in prior-year wins above replacement and 47% better in projected WAR.
DeRosa began the process of building his dream U.S. pitching staff by writing down three names: Skenes, Skubal and Zack Wheeler. Skenes was immediately in. Wheeler was in until undergoing shoulder surgery. Skubal was a complicated case. He is in line for a free-agent megadeal this fall. Would the tournament be worth it to him? DeRosa and the U.S. pitching coach, Andy Pettitte, kept in contact with him.
Skubal had the itch. He did not want to miss out. Early in the offseason, at the players’ union’s meetings in Scottsdale, Arizona, Skubal peppered Skenes about his WBC preparation. “I took him aside: ‘Hey, what’s your plan? What’s your vibe? What do you got on all this?’” Skubal recalled. Skenes walked away thinking there was a 50-50 shot Skubal would be on the WBC roster. There was still a lot for Skubal, his agent Scott Boras and the Detroit Tigers to iron out.
In the meantime, DeRosa fortified the late innings. In November, Miller, the flame-throwing San Diego Padres reliever, was in Hawaii with his wife, Jordan. They had discussed the possibility of him pitching for the United States, so when DeRosa phoned to gauge his interest, Miller had a response ready: “Of course.” Bednar, the Yankees’ closer, got a call, too. “I was fortunate enough to get asked to do it again,” said Bednar, the only returning pitcher from the 2023 U.S. roster. “It was a pretty easy yes.”
The more stars who committed, the easier the recruiting became.
In December, Skenes heard from Skubal again. He was in.
“He was pretty fired up,” Skenes said.
“I take a ton of pride in being able to wear the USA across the chest,” Skubal said. “It’s something I’ve never had the opportunity to do. I think it is the best country in the world. It will also be another really special thing in my career, just being able to share the clubhouse with all those guys that are elite, at the top of today’s game. They’re all superstars. Getting to all come together for one common goal will be pretty special.”
There is an inherent conflict between the U.S. team’s championship aspirations and MLB teams’ preparation for the long regular season. This has led to friction over parent clubs prohibiting pitchers with recent arm injuries from participating in the WBC or, for those who begrudgingly approved, placing them under onerous use limits.
Would the Pirates’ hopes of carving a path to the postseason this year be safer if they kept Skenes at spring training and encased him in Bubble Wrap? Yes. Would protecting him be a detriment to baseball fans worldwide? Undoubtedly.
So sending Skenes to the WBC brings on a blend of emotions: “Supporting the greater good of the game, and having a pit in our stomach,” Pirates General Manager Ben Cherington said.
The event has exploded in popularity and become increasingly more important to players. Cherington said he wanted to support that, trusting players to prepare properly for the WBC — and the season.
“Of course,” he said, “you’re going to be holding your breath a bit through it.”
Similar arrangements were struck between pitchers and decision-makers across the sport. Starters tweaked their offseason routines to be on the mound for early spring training games, rather than ramping up slowly with simulation games. Relievers will be at full gas a few weeks early. San Diego Padres General Manager A.J. Preller encouraged Miller to work with the Padres and U.S. pitching coaches and strength staffs to ensure all were on the same page as he ramped up his throwing program.
Miller appreciated Preller’s support. “Obviously, from a team’s perspective, there’s not a ton of upside,” Miller said. He added: “I’m not naive enough to ignore that. But it’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
In San Francisco, the Giants’ president of baseball operations, Buster Posey, who won a gold medal at the 2017 World Baseball Classic, asked Webb to reconsider his choice and pitch for the U.S. team later in his career. But Webb already punted once. In 2023, he was a late omission from the U.S. roster, choosing to stay in Giants camp instead.
“Obviously, they have their thoughts about it,” Webb said last month. “I think that’s known. But at the end of the day, it’s my decision.”
The decision by Webb and the others made to pitch for the U.S. team illustrates how far the pendulum has swung in the past decade. In 2017, New York Mets starter Noah Syndergaard declined an invitation to pitch in the WBC and said, “Ain’t nobody make it to the Hall of Fame and win the World Series playing in the WBC.”
That still is true. But, more and more, American pitchers are deciding it sounds like a good time anyway.
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