USA Baseball announced Tuesday that Pittsburgh Pirates’ ace Paul Skenes will join captain Aaron Judge on Team USA’s roster for the 2026 World Baseball Classic.
Skenes is the second player named to the roster. Team USA announced Judge’s addition to the lineup on April 14. Manager Mark DeRosa will lead the Americans into the tournament from March 5 to 17. The games will be held in San Juan, Houston, Tokyo, and Miami.
“This is one thing, as a fan of the game, watching the previous World Baseball Classics, that I was like, ‘If I ever get the chance to do this, I’m never saying no,'” Skenes said during an MLB Network announcement.
DeRosa claimed that he went “big game hunting” to get Skenes on his roster. He stated that when looking for a pitcher, he called Skenes first.
“I think we’ve got the guy we are going to hand the ball to hopefully in the championship game and we are going to hand the ball to hopefully in whatever game he wants to pitch,” DeRosa said when asked about Skenes.
The Americans won gold at the 2017 World Baseball Classic before losing to Japan in the 2023 finale. They finished fourth in 2009 and did not advance past the second round in their previous two appearances.
Skenes, the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year, went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA in 23 starts during his rookie season. The first overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft went 3-4 with a 2.63 ERA in his first nine appearances this season.
Skenes gave up six hits and one run over six innings in the Pirates’ 4-3 loss to the New York Mets on Monday in Flushing, N.Y.
