Team Canada must take out Team USA to advance in ’26 WBC

The Twists and Joyful Turns of Team Dominican highlight tourney

If you listened carefully during pool play at the 2026 World Baseball Classic, you have heard nary a cliche in any post-game interview with Team Dominicana and its stars. Their words flow like verbal bat-flips, with forever smiles punctuating what has become the most fun team assembled to play in six editions of the WBC. They are not just happy to be there they want to be last team standing. But, of course, that does not mean they are shoo-ins to win the title for their first-time manager Albert Pujols.

Compare that to Team USA, that barely survived its close brush with (sudden) death via the dreaded and somewhat opaque WBC tie-breaker (i.e. take the 3 teams total runs allowed in intramural games, divided by innings pitched). The fortunate Americans live to fight another day and that day becomes Friday vs. Team Canada.

The grim Americans are very opposite in attitude to the Dominicans. At this point it may be safe to say that nobody outside of the U.S.A. wants to see the Americans win, but everyone can easily but grudgingly acknowledge that they have the talent to do so. They came to this event as favourites, aided by the hype machines of MLB Network, Fox and the Office of the Commissioner.

For the Americans this seems more like a business trip in the middle of spring training for the veterans on Team USA. They arrived expecting to win. All business? Take for example, leadoff batter for Team Mexico, Randy Arozarena and his singular moment of perceived disrespect. As he stepped into the box to open the USA game, the M’s star smilingly reached out to shake hands or fist-bump with his current Mariners teammate, catcher Cal Raleigh. The Big Dumper ignored the outstretched hand. That the U.S. went on to beat Mexico mattered little. Arozarena was quite rightfully steamed and remains so at his teammate. That will be a tough fence to mend. Raleigh was simply showing the U.S. meant business. He was wrong.

Compare and contrast that to Team Dominican’s joyful three-hour glove-fest vs. Team Venezuela in Miami at Wednesday’s Pool C finale. The game was won by the D.R. clinching first place over second-place Venezuela in front of a wild and noisy full house. On the field, there were hugs, smiling exchanges, back pats and bat taps all over the diamond. Hard to dislike either team in that situation. Respect and talent should always go hand-in-hand at these events.

The Judge is in but the jury is out on Team USA. The attitude of inevitability and American invincibility begins with the manager, former major-league infielder and current broadcaster Mark DeRosa. He has never been on a coaching staff or managed a professional team at any level. We have learned from history that it’s a big step from studio to dugout with so much on the line. It did not work for Buck Martinez and the Blue Jays in 2000 or for former infielder Jarry Coleman and the Padres in 1980.

Team USA has returned to a strategy that did not work before, back in 2006, when for the first WBC, they compounded the Blue Jays’ earlier mistake by naming Buck as their manager. He was a broadcaster on TV in Baltimore and for marquee events and could promote the WBC event. Name Buck as manager and, hey, they were expected to win, no matter what. In hindsight, the way people talk, you would think America has won at least 2-3 of the previous five WBC. The reality is they have only won once, with Jim Leyland as skipper back in 2017, beating the Dominican, Team Japan and then Puerto Rico 8-0 in the final. Marcus Stroman started the championship game and was WBC MVP.

A wise baseball man once said that the farther away from the diamond you get (as in a broadcast booth) the game slows down and the art of managing seems easy. Exhibit A? This American team under DeRosa cruised through the first three games, with a final matchup on Tuesday with Team Italy. Then it got dicey.

DeRosa appeared on MLB Network‘s Tuesday morning show with his everyday work colleagues and was absolutely giddy, seemingly armed with the wrong information. The manager explained that since “we have punched our ticket to the quarterfinals” that he was going to start several of his bench players, 1B Paul Goldschmidt, 3B Gunnar Henderson, 2B Ernie Clement and C Will Smith, leaving Bryce Harper, Alex Bregman, Brice Turang and Cal Raleigh on the bench. In addition, his first two men out of a rested bullpen were LH Ryan Yarbrough and RH Brad Keller. Combined they gave up five runs in three innings, putting them in an 8-0 hole against a team that was also 3-0.

But DeRosa was walking a tightrope in not understanding the distinct possibility of elimination, with the loss to Italy that he was in the midst of and a win by Mexico over the Italians the next night. They would have all been 3-1 and the Americans would have needed help. It seems that at some point, during that game, he was told in the dugout that they really needed to win to control their own destiny. That was when in the eighth inning, Clayton Kershaw sat down in the pen and Mason Miller hurried to get ready.

At that point, desperate to win, as a national team broadcaster/manager, there can be no favours to “friends of the show”. The embarrassment of being eliminated because of not understanding the tournament tie-breaker rules would have been impossible to overcome. DeRosa did much of the recruiting via personal phone calls to the best players in the game, appealing to their national pride. Who knows what he promised, but winning is one of them. He did well in rounding up an uber-talented roster. Next time make him general manager and leave the managing to an experienced professional.

Fortunately, a talented, Espresso-fueled, fun to watch, underdog Italy handled Team Mexico handily the next night, handing second place and a berth in the quarterfinals to Team USA. Royals’ first-baseman Vinnie Pasquantino homered thrice for Italy and when interviewed after the game made sure to jokingly say, “You’re welcome, USA.”

The Team Canada vs. Team USA quarterfinal on Friday night should be a “Do you believe in miracles moment” for manager Ernie Whitt and his men who have advanced to the second round for the first time in WBC history.