The World Baseball Classic is less than a year away, and Team USA is making some key decisions. It was announced that Mark DeRosa would return as the manager, and today, during a live event on MLB Network, it was revealed that Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees would be the captain for Team USA.
“It wasn’t the best sitting at home kinda watching Team USA battle [in 2023],” Judge said on MLB Network after missing out in 2023. “I wanted to be there.”
Judge will be making his debut in the World Baseball Classic. He is one of the best players in basketball and will represent his country in 2026. He expressed his interest in playing earlier this offseason, and now he will officially be a part of Team USA’s quest for gold.
“I think that’d be pretty fun. It’d be cool to represent your country,” Judge told FOX Sports earlier this year. “[Team USA] made it to the finals, but they didn’t win it. So we gotta win it. We’ll see.”
The last World Baseball Classic ended with Shohei Ohtani striking out captain Mike Trout to claim the gold medal. Team USA will be hoping for different results this time around. Even though Trout will not be the captain, Judge hopes he will still be “patrolling the outfield” with him. DeRosa also revealed that Trout was informed of Judge’s captaincy before the announcement and felt that Judge “should be” the captain in 2026.
