The 2026 World Baseball Classic begins Thursday and Team USA will open versus Brazil on Friday at Houston's Daikin Park. The U.S. players reported to Phoenix over the weekend for training camp and will play an exhibition against the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday.
Several U.S. players appeared on Monday's "The Pat McAfee Show," which broadcast live from Arizona for the Team USA workouts. Among those interviewed were team captain andAmerican League MVPAaron Judge, MVP runner-up Cal Raleigh,National League Cy Young Award winnerPaul Skenes, Clayton Kershaw and Bryce Harper.
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Coming off the 2026 Winter Olympics and theU.S. winning gold medals in men'sandwomen's hockeyat Milan Cortina, Harper said those achievements have motivated him and his teammates even more to win the WBC.
"The Olympics, what an incredible thing. I'm missing the Olympics so much," Harper told McAfee. "Seeing the women's hockey, men's hockey take gold... what an incredible experience to watch them play and do their thing and represent our country."
"To take that and come into what we're doing now, it's just the swagger we need to have," he added, referring toJack Hughes scoring the game-winnerversus Canada after getting teeth knocked out. "The cool thing about baseball and the World Baseball Classic, or the Olympics, you see the culture of everything of baseball from the Dominican Republic to Japan to us, to everybody."
Team USA isthe favorite to winthe 2026 WBC with more stars, includingAL Cy Young winnerTarik Skubal, Bobby Witt Jr., Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Schwarberon the roster.Defending champion Japan,with NL MVP Shohei Ohtani and World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, is also viewed favorably, having won three tournaments. The Dominican Republic (2013 winners) and Venezuela are also considered contenders.
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Tarik Skubal, Paul Skenes will pitch second and third in Team USA starting rotation
U.S. manager Mark DeRosaannouncedthat Logan Webb will start the U.S. opener on Friday, followed by Skubal, Skenes and Nolan McLean. Skubal will face Great Britain, Skenes will pitch versus Mexico and McLean will start against Italy in Pool B play.
Skenes will also start Tuesday's exhibition versus the Giants.
"It's set up," DeRosa told reporters, includingESPN's Jesse Rogers. "There's obviously guardrails for the tournament... pitch count-wise. But there's also guardrails for guys having to throw on certain days to get ready for their team's Opening Day."
The "guardrails" remark applies most to Skubal, who announced thathe will make only one startduring the tournament then report back to Detroit Tigers spring training. The left-hander will belimited to 55 pitchesin his outing.
McLean did not report to Phoenix for the opening workout is still at the New York Mets' spring camp in Port St. Lucie, Floridawhile fighting an illness. DeRosa said he doesn't yet know if he'll have to make a change because of that.
Skenes intends to make two starts in the WBC and plans to be available in the knockout round if the U.S. advances. Pitching for his country is important to Skenes, who pitched his first two college seasons for the Air Force Academy.
"It's the biggest stage I've played on,"Skenes told MLB Network. "The coolest motivation, the coolest thing that we're playing for is winning gold for our country... Winning the World Series is the goal every year, but playing in an international tournament where every country in the world is represented, being able to be on top of that is pretty cool."
Team USA's opener versus Brazil isscheduledfor 8 p.m. ET on Friday. The top two finishers in pool play will advance to the quarterfinals, also played in Houston.