Baseball’s premier international tournament is back. Twenty teams from all over the globe are set to vie for supremacy at the 2026 World Baseball Classic, starting this week.
The 2026 tournament, which gets underway this week, features four pools. Each of those pools consists of five teams battling it out in a round-robin format. The top two teams from each pool then advance to the quarterfinals, with the rest of the event taking place in a tournament-style, single-elimination format.
The USA is in Pool B which takes place in Houston. This is a strong pool and the Americans open play Friday vs. Brazil. The U.S. has assembled a superteam in its attempt to reclaim World Baseball Classic gold after falling to Japan in the 2023 title game. Team USA last won the Classic in 2017.
To emerge from Pool B, Team USA will have to go through Mexico, which nearly took down the champs in the semifinals of the last Classic before a ninth-inning rally by Japan. And Italy is also coming off a quarterfinal run in 2023, arguably has a stronger team this time around, and has beaten Mexico twice in the World Baseball Classic, in 2013 and 2017.
Team USA definitely has stars. The U.S. is loaded with superstars like Aaron Judge, Paul Skenes, Tarik Skubal, Bryce Harper, Cal Raleigh, Bobby Witt Jr. and a lot more. Mexico is led by WBC ’23 supernova Randy Arozarena, Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran, Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk and Mariners closer Andrés Muñoz. Italy has slugger Vinnie Pasquantino returning from 2023, and has added players like Aaron Nola, Adam Ottavino and Jac Caglianone. Yankees All-Star Jazz Chisholm Jr. is the headliner for Great Britain.
It’s not hard to understand why Team USA is picked to get the title back over Japan. The United States’ pitching staff is much stronger than it was three years ago, with Paul Skenes, Logan Webb and Mason Miller also among the team’s newcomers on the mound.
Meanwhile, the position-player group has added Aaron Judge — who will captain the squad in his Classic debut — Cal Raleigh, Gunnar Henderson, Bryce Harper, Alex Bregman, Byron Buxton, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Roman Anthony. Bobby Witt Jr. also figures to play a much larger role than he did as a bench player for Team USA in 2023, having since established himself as one of the top players in the game.
Just like last month in hockey, look for Team USA to win another World Title.
