Before the 2023 MLB season, the World Baseball Classic will be an exciting event with some of the best players on the planet.
The United States, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Japan, South Korea, and some of the strongest baseball countries in the world will participate.
Team USA will try to defend the title they won in 2017, and to do that, they have secured some really strong players to their roster.
“Team USA is looking STACKED!! Who do you want to see suit up for Team USA in the @WBCBaseball next?” MLB Network tweeted, with a picture of some of the early commits.
Team USA is looking STACKED!! 🇺🇸⚾️
Who do you want to see suit up for Team USA in the @WBCBaseball next? pic.twitter.com/DgZgKdJXKG
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) August 16, 2022
So far, the United States has an All-Star catcher in JT Realmuto, two corner infield stalwarts in Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, a middle infielder in Trevor Story, and two top-five outfielders in baseball in Bryce Harper and Mike Trout.
That’s a pretty good offensive foundation: now, they need some pitchers to start rounding out their projected roster.
There Will Be Some Strong Competition In The WBC
We know America has some of the best hurlers in the world.
However, the competition should be fierce.
Japan won the 2006 and 2009 editions of the World Baseball Classic before the Dominican Republic won the 2013 WBC.
Those two squads will be very, very hard to beat: imagine the Japanese with Shohei Ohtani, Seiya Suzuki, and some of the biggest stars of the Nippon Professional League, perhaps the second-best league in the world.
The Dominican roster should be an incredible collection of talent: there is currently no word on who may be on the final roster, but they have Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Framber Valdez, Starling Marte, Emmanuel Clase, and many, many more stars.
USA then took the 2017 classic, and no additional tournaments have been played since then.