Projecting Team USA's 2026 World Baseball Classic Roster for Captain Aaron Judge

The 2026 World Baseball Classic is less than a year away, and Team USA has already lined up Mark DeRosa to be its manager and Aaron Judge to be its captain. That's a heck of a way to start a team.

Who else should Team USA pursue next year?

We all love an excuse to put a Dream Team together, after all, and the stakes for the 2026 Team USA squad will be high. Whereas the 2023 team was technically the defending World Baseball Classic champions, the 2026 iteration will be out for revenge for Shohei Ohtani and Team Japan.

The caveat in projecting a 2026 roster this far out is that we largely don't know who's interested in playing, much less who would play for Team USA. To wit, none of us saw Freddie Freeman joining up to play for Canada in 2023.

Judge, though, sounds hopeful that players will flock to Team USA's cause.

"You have a bunch of guys that compete against each other all year long, and now you bring us all together—it's going to be something special," the two-time AL MVP said Monday, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. "We play this game for such a small amount of time, so to get an opportunity like this, I think guys really gravitate toward it."

Good enough for us. So without further dawdling, here are 30 players we'd pick for Team USA's starting lineup, bench, rotation and bullpen. We focused on selecting prime-aged stars but also made special cases for veterans who deserve the honor.

Constructing Perfect Team USA Starting Lineup

1. SS Bobby Witt Jr. (R)
2. 2B Mookie Betts (R)
3. LF Kyle Tucker (L)
4. RF Aaron Judge (R)
5. 1B Bryce Harper (L)
6. DH Mike Trout (R)
7. 3B Gunnar Henderson (L)
8. C Adley Rutschman (S)
9. CF Jackson Merrill (L)

We know Judge is going to be there, and he hopes Trout will return after captaining Team USA to the WBC Final in 2023.

"He'd better be out there patrolling the outfield with me," Judge said.

Designated hitter sounds like a better spot for Trout, who's already an injury risk and set to turn 34 on August 7. And the three-time AL MVP can still hit, as he's averaged 47 home runs per 162 games even since his health began to deteriorate in 2021.

Because Trout and Harper—who couldn't participate in 2023 due to Tommy John surgery—are overdue to pair up on Team USA, the two-time NL MVP can come, too. He'll be 33 on October 16, but he's still a near-certain bet for a .900 OPS and 30 homers in any given season.

Betts would make it four MVP winners in this lineup, and Tucker may well make it five by the end of 2025. He was already good, but he's turned a corner to something else since the start of last season, posting a 1.003 OPS and 28 homers in 97 games.

Witt vs. Henderson is one of the great debates of our time, as they're basically mirror images of each other in terms of productivity since 2023. But since Henderson can also play third, we thankfully don't need to choose just one to man the left side of Team USA's starting infield.

After dealing with nagging injuries in 2024, Rutschman looks more like himself to the tune of a .807 OPS in 2025. He would stare out at center field and see Merrill, who has 5.1 rWAR and 27 homers to show for 166 games in the majors.

Starting Lineup Honorable Mentions: Freddie Freeman, Corey Seager, Alex Bregman, Steven Kwan

Constructing the Perfect Team USA Bench

• Catcher: Cal Raleigh (S)
• Corner Infielder: Austin Riley (R)
• Corner Infielder: Pete Alonso (R)
• Outfielder: Corbin Carroll (L)
• Utility: Tommy Edman (S)
• Utility: Kristian Campbell (R)

Raleigh arguably deserves to be Team USA's starting catcher, but it would be a privilege to have his Big Dumper on the bench. Platinum Glove-winning catchers with 30-homer power are rare, after all.

For further pop off the bench, DeRosa could turn to Alonso and his 230 career home runs. He played for Team USA in 2023, and Tim Healey of Newsday reported that he wants back on the roster for 2026.

Riley would likewise provide pop off the bench, with the ability to play both third and first in a pinch. Carroll would be the speedster on the pine for DeRosa, though even his .480 slugging percentage understates the threat he poses as a slugger.

Edman, meanwhile, would be a notable name on this list even if he wasn't turning heads with a six-homer start to 2025. There's no position he can't play in the field, except for maybe first base and catcher.

For his part, Campbell is a budding superstar (.972 OPS, 0.8 rWAR in 17 games) who has started games at second base, center field and left field. He'd be a second Swiss Army knife for DeRosa.

Bench Honorable Mentions: Will Smith, Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Dansby Swanson, James Wood

Constructing the Perfect Team USA Starting Rotation

1. Paul Skenes, RHP
2. Tarik Skubal, LHP
3. Hunter Greene, RHP
4. Zack Wheeler, RHP
5. Garrett Crochet, LHP
6. Logan Gilbert, RHP
7. Logan Webb, RHP

To be clear, this isn't so much a "starting rotation" as a collection of pitchers who could provide bulk innings for DeRosa. The World Baseball Classic does take place during spring training, after all.

Lest anyone think Skenes is overhyped, just remember he's a sensation despite his lowly station with the Pittsburgh Pirates. That his 2.12 ERA is the lowest ever for a live-ball era pitcher through his first 27 starts is likewise a big deal.

Skubal has been on an incredible run since July 4, 2023, posting a 2.52 ERA with 355 strikeouts over 296 innings. Greene has similar helium dating back to last July, with 13 starts yielding a 1.00 ERA with 91 strikeouts and just 35 hits allowed in 80.2 innings.

Wheeler is going to be 35 on May 30, so it's with some trepidation that we included him. But when a guy is far and away the rWAR leader among pitchers since 2020, they deserve a shot at national heroism.

Crochet has fanned 12.4 batters per nine innings since transitioning from the bullpen to the rotation last spring. And for their parts, each of the Logans can claim to be massively underrated.

Gilbert led the majors in both innings and WHIP last year, which basically makes him a one-man efficiency symposium. Webb has logged a league-high 637 innings since 2022, in the process getting 84 more ground-ball outs than anyone else.

Starting Rotation Honorable Mentions: Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell, Chris Sale, Zac Gallen, Dylan Cease, Aaron Nola, Max Fried

Constructing the Perfect Team USA Bullpen

• Closer: Mason Miller, RHP
• Setup: Ryan Helsley, RHP
• Setup: Tanner Scott, LHP
• Middle: Josh Hader, LHP
• Middle: Devin Williams, RHP
• Middle: Ryan Walker, RHP
• Middle: Hunter Gaddis, RHP
• Long: Michael King, RHP

What can we say? We like 100 mph fastballs.

Miller and Helsley have those in abundance, with the former even sitting at 100.3 mph with his heater in 2025. Helsley's average is a relatively paltry 98.7 mph, but he's gotten as high as 101.7 mph.

Though each is overqualified for the role, Scott and Hader would be the lefty killers in this pen. Hader has held southpaws to a .484 OPS for his career, while Scott is one of the few pitchers on the planet who can claim to have Ohtani's number. The three-time MVP has faced Scott 10 times and only gotten one hit.

Williams, Walker and Gaddis would be the specialty pitch brigade. Williams' "Airbender" changeup needs no introduction, while Walker and Gaddis have claims to the best sinker and slider in MLB, respectively.

Rounding things out would be King, who was a successful multi-inning fireman for the New York Yankees before he developed into an ace starter for the San Diego Padres. He'd technically be another bulk guy, but one who could also be used in a high-leverage spot in the late innings if need be.

The 2025 ZiPS projections for these guys add up to 105 WAR. If it sounds like a lot, it is. There isn't a single team in MLB organization projected for more than 80 WAR this year, and we're not talking just from its major leaguers. That includes prospects and other minor leaguers, too.

Clearly, this is a 30-man crew that could do damage against any team that crossed its path during the 2026 World Baseball Classic, up to and including Japan.

Bullpen Honorable Mentions: Jeff Hoffman, Kirby Yates, Matt Strahm, David Robertson, Griffin Jax

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.