As the time begins to tick towards March, baseball’s most electric and passionate fans are ready once again. 20 nations will send the best they got, including many Major League Baseball (MLB) all-stars and dozens of professional talents. All of this striving to chase what Japan had done last in 2023.. World Champions.
The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is a global baseball tournament organized by MLB. The WBC debuted in 2006 and is typically played every four years. As far as winners in past years, Japan repeated in 2006 and 2009. In 2013 the Dominican Republic won their first and the United States followed in 2017. COVID-19 forced the postponement of the 2021 WBC and it was rescheduled for 2023 when Japan took home their 3rd title.
So about this year’s WBC, the United States are favored to take home the trophy according to many people including Jack Taylor and Denny Blom, whom I interviewed recently. The former New Hartford baseball players and long-time baseball fans know a lot about pro baseball.
When I asked them who they think is winning this year and why? Blom replied. “The U.S. They have some incredible talent this year. It also helps that a lot of players’ insurance is not getting signed for players trying to play for Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, so they are not as strong as past years.”
Taylor added, “The United States because they have the most complete roster and historically produce the most homegrown talent.”
As a reader you must be questioning why the United States? Well, there may be a valid reason for why many people have the U.S this year. It is their pitching staff.
In his article 2026 WBC: How Team USA built its best pitching staff ever Jorge Castillo writes,“Three years ago, Team USA’s starting pitchers combined for seven All-Star Game appearances and zero Cy Young Awards going into the tournament. In 2022, 14 American pitchers received a Cy Young Award vote, 13 finished in the top 20 in ERA among qualified pitchers across the majors and 14 finished in the top 20 in FanGraphs WAR. None of them pitched for Team USA in 2023.This year’s starters — not including Kershaw — have combined for nine All-Star Game appearances and three Cy Young Awards. Of the 16 American starters to finish in the top 20 in ERA last season, five — Skenes, Skubal, Boyd, Webb and Ryan — are on the staff. Skubal, Skenes and Webb finished in the top five in fWAR. Boyd was 18th and Ryan was tied for 21st.”
Castillo brings up a great point of why the United States could be dangerous this year.
Even though some countries are loaded with talented stars in this upcoming tournament some of those players are sadly unable to compete for their respected countries due to financial problems. For any player on a 40-man MLB roster to compete, the WBC must secure a policy through National Financial Partners (NFP) that protects his club by covering guaranteed salary for up to two years position players or four years pitchers if he’s injured during the March 5-17 tournament. This year, NFP has tightened standards dramatically flagging risks like recent or offseason surgery, multiple IL stints, multiple career surgeries, or even players turning 37 in certain contract years. For injuries there are big named guys like Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa. Aging players like Jose Altuve, Mike Trout, and others are out unless their MLB teams agree for them to play, something most clubs are unlikely to do.
Even Denny Blom brought up the insurance problem when I asked him about his thoughts on the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico’s chances to win it all this year.
“I think their chances are hurt because of many issues with players’ insurance not being signed by their mlb teams, players like Francisco Lindor, Miguel Rojas, Carlos Correa, and Alexis Diaz have all been denied insurance to compete with their respective countries in the WBC,” Blom said.
I believe this topic isn’t as important as it may seem. But compared to other years,the amount of players that were able to compete was much more exciting and made some teams this year a little underwhelming.
