World Baseball Classic, Or Assic?

If the 2026 World Baseball Classic is suffering from anything, it is expectation. Three years ago, the WBC ended on a note near-impossible to surpass: two teammates and future Hall of Famers facing each other in a deciding at-bat, and victory cinched by the most exciting baseball player in history. The standard now is not necessarily that the WBC will end in the same dramatic fashion, but that the success of the previous display would improve future renditions. Sure, 2023 boasted several star-studded rosters, but it could become a true best-on-best showing, with the participation to cement the WBC as a serious enterprise.

Which makes each piece of slightly negative news about this year's WBC participation feel like a knock against the tournament's hard-earned legitimacy. First, there are the insurance-related issues barring some stars from participation, after several big names were injured during the 2023 WBC. Puerto Rico was especially gutted, with Francisco Lindor and Carlos Correa only two of their eight players initially deemed unable to participate, despite Bad Bunny's best efforts.

That would already be enough to give the competition a slight aroma del ratón Miguelito , but worse than the uninsured are the seeming shirkers. It is one thing for players to be forcefully barred from attendance; it is another for them to appear uncommitted to the cause. Tarik Skubal has became an example of the latter, as a participant who is just barely a participant. The Detroit Tigers ace is one of the best pitchers in baseball, coming off his second consecutive AL Cy Young award–winning year. He is also in a contract year, which explains why his only planned WBC appearance for Team USA, at least according to Bob Nightengale, will be to throw 55 likely unnecessary pitches against Great Britain before returning to spring training. (It is unclear where Atlanta's Jurikson Profar getting suspended for PEDs, the second time he has done so within the past year, and thus being barred from playing for the Netherlands, fits into this dialectic.)