A short international tournament like the World Baseball Classic can lend itself to charged moments between the game’s biggest stars.
Former teammates Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout standing 60 feet, six inches apart for all the marbles in 2023 is the prime example.
Many of the sport’s best are now set to compete for their countries once again, and a heater at the plate, a pitcher dealing, or a sensational play in the field could swing a nation’s baseball fortunes.
Thanks to an uptick in player participation, the 2026 edition of the Classic is brimming with even more top talent capable of making such awe-striking and game-changing plays.
Here are 15 players to keep an eye on once the WBC gets underway on Wednesday:
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Watch the World Baseball Classic on Sportsnet
The World Baseball Classic is back for its sixth edition, running from March 5-17 in Miami, Houston, San Juan and Tokyo. Catch all the action on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
Broadcast schedule
1. Shohei Ohtani, DH – Japan
Ohtani won’t pitch in the Classic, but he has won a league MVP award in four of the past five seasons, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since Barry Bonds won four straight in the National League from 2001-2004.
The Japanese slugger didn’t need to pitch to win it in 2024 and pitched for only part of 2025 but is coming off consecutive 50-home run seasons and World Series titles.
Ohtani also created the 50-50 club with 54 home runs and 59 stolen bases in 2024 and has led his respective league in OPS for three years running. The 31-year-old has a compelling case as the greatest baseball player ever and Japan repeating as WBC champions would add yet another accolade to his extensive resume.
The only player with a higher OPS or more home runs than Ohtani over the last five MLB seasons is Aaron Judge.
A glance at his statcast page from last season reveals a terrifying cavalcade of bright red bars as the towering outfielder ranked in the 99th percentile or higher in all the categories that mean someone absolutely mashes (hard hit rate, average exit velocity, barrel rate, expected slugging, expected batting average and expected weighted on-base average).
His prodigious power and daunting presence in the box also resulted in an MLB-leading 18.3 per cent walk rate, with many coming intentionally – Judge led the majors with 36 IBB’s in 2025, while Ohtani was second at 20.
Judge’s nickname is fitting, as all rise out of their seats when the fearsome slugger displays his monumental baseball-crushing abilities. He’ll certainly be looking to put the U.S. back on top after sitting out of the WBC in 2023 while his country lost to Japan in the finals.
Guerrero Jr. is coming off one of the greatest MLB post-seasons of all time. That isn’t hyperbole. His 241 wRC+ ranked ninth all-time among players with at least 40 plate appearances in a single post-season.
The eight home runs he belted in October are tied for second-most ever in a playoff run, equal to Ohtani’s output and to Bonds’ 2002. Guerrero also set the Blue Jays’ all-time franchise record for post-season homers over the course of only 28 days.
Fresh off the sting of a heartbreaking loss in Game 7 of the World Series, and always filled with national pride, Guerrero will look to help lead a stacked D.R. lineup to its first WBC title since 2013.
4. Paul Skenes, SP – United States
Considering that reigning AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal is reportedly making only one 55-pitch start against Great Britain before returning to camp with the Detroit Tigers, the NL Cy Young winner will have to do for the United States should they make the elimination round.
Skenes’ MLB-leading 1.97 ERA in 2025 was backed up by elite underlying numbers. The 23-year-old used his high-90s heater and elite seven-pitch mix to limit hard contact, command the zone and strike out 29.5 per cent of the batters he faced – the highest mark of any major league pitcher competing in the Classic.
5. Josh Naylor, 1B – Canada
Canada will be without star first baseman Freddie Freeman, and Naylor is the one who must step into his shoes.
Last competing at the WBC in 2017 after missing the 2023 tournament with an ankle injury, Naylor has shown tremendous versatility in recent years, oscillating between hitting for contact (batting averages of .308 and .295 in 2023 and 2025) and power (30 home runs in 2024). Recently, the plodding infielder – Naylor has third percentile sprint speed, nearly equal to Alejandro Kirk – even added bag swiping to his repertoire. The Mississauga, Ont., native stole 30 bases last season through a combination of reading pitchers and perfectly timed leads.
The newly anointed Captain Canada joined Hall of Famer Larry Walker as the second-ever Canadian to hit 20 homers and steal 30 bases in a single season.
Naylor also became the first Canadian to hit a home run against the Blue Jays in the post-season, when he hit .417 with three longballs and five RBIs in the ALCS for the Seattle Mariners.
6. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, SP – Japan
Skenes has the highest MLB strikeout rate of any pitcher at this edition of the WBC, but Yamamoto’s behind by only 0.1 per cent.
Yamamoto is facing a quick turnaround after successfully repeating in the Fall Classic with the Dodgers, especially after closing out Game 7 the day after a brilliant start in Game 6.
The reigning World Series MVP was clinical in the post-season, pitching to a 1.45 ERA with 33 strikeouts and only six walks over 37.1 innings, including the first back-to-back complete games in October since Curt Schilling in 2001.
7. Randy Arozarena, OF – Mexico
Arozarena’s production is a tier below many of the players on this list, yet multiple times in his career, he’s shown a knack for performing in high-stakes environments.
Always a showman, Arozarena holds the MLB single post-season record with 10 home runs, held the record with 29 hits until Ernie Clement surpassed it with 30 this past fall, and carried Mexico to the WBC semifinals in 2023.
He slashed .450/.607/.900 with one homer, six doubles and nine RBIs over six games in that tournament and famously robbed a blast from Kazuma Okamoto.
8. Ernie Clement, UTIL – United States
The Buffalo boy has endeared himself forever to Canadian baseball fans with his gritty play and record-breaking 30-hit performance in the post-season.
Clement could be an interesting X-factor for Team USA, considering his seemingly preternatural bat-to-ball skills and tremendous glove. His 9.8 per cent strikeout rate is the fourth lowest in MLB over his two full seasons, and he tied for the major league lead with 22 defensive runs saved in 2025.
The super utilityman doesn’t stand to start on a loaded U.S. squad, but if they need a ball in play in a pinch or a late-game defensive replacement, Clement could be the man for the job.
9. Julio Rodriguez, CF – Dominican Republic
Considering his massive potential, Rodriguez has had consecutive down years at the plate and has been particularly marred by slow starts.
Still, he managed to post 5.7 fWAR in 2025, 11th among MLB players participating in the WBC.
If the 25-year-old phenom is himself out of the gate, he could provide a serious power boost for the Dominican while also playing plus defence at a premium position.
10. Alejandro Kirk, C – Mexico
If it wasn’t for Kirk, the Toronto Blue Jays’ storybook run to the World Series would have gone differently.
The stout catcher proved his ability to step up in high-pressure moments with three home runs and seven RBIs over the Blue Jays’ final two games of the season, helping them secure the AL East title and a bye to the division series. He then added two more homers in Game 1 of the ALDS against the New York Yankees for good measure.
Aside from his elite line-drive contact ability, Kirk is also among the best defensive players in baseball. His plus-22 fielding run value and plus-17 catcher framing runs ranked second to only Patrick Bailey in 2025.
11. Bobby Witt Jr., SS – United States
Similar to Rodriguez, Witt had a down year by his standards in 2025 — if you can call six triples, 23 homers, 38 steals, a .295 average and .852 OPS a down year.
The toolsy, dynamic shortstop still posted 8.0 fWAR, trailing only Judge, Ohtani and Cal Raleigh in part thanks to his 100th percentile defensive range and sprint speed.
The AL MVP runner-up and batting title winner in 2024, Witt has led the league in hits for consecutive seasons, previously led the league in triples, has had two 30-home run seasons and once stole 49 bases. He has the skillset to make exhilarating plays and take over games.
12. Edwin Diaz, CL – Puerto Rico
La Isla del Encanto has a number of quality MLB players on its roster — Nolan Arenado, Seth Lugo, Heliot Ramos — but only one true star.
Diaz is now the highest-paid closer in baseball by average annual value after signing a three-year, $69-million deal with, of course, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The payday is well deserved, as the 31-year-old right-hander has the best strikeout-to-walk ratio of any qualified MLB reliever over the last five seasons. Puerto Rico stands to be Canada’s stiffest competition in the group stage, and if their game winds up close in the late innings, Diaz could be a problem.
13. Cal Raleigh C – United States
Big Dumper was reborn as a superstar in 2025, belting 60 home runs — 12 more than any other catcher had before — and narrowly losing the AL MVP vote to Aaron Judge.
The switch-hitting Mariners backstop also slugged in the playoffs, hitting five home runs in 12 games as he led Seattle to Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.
Raleigh is a pure three-true-outcomes hitter: he walks a ton (95th percentile), strikes out plenty (14th percentile) and launches lots of balls over the wall. He’ll now be looking for a similar breakout on the international stage when he joins the formidable U.S. lineup in his first WBC.
14. Ronald Acuna Jr., OF – Venezuela
A consistent theme on this list is robust athletes with high-end physical tools who had worse-than-usual MLB production in 2025, and Acuna fits the bill.
During his last fully healthy season in 2023, Acuna won NL MVP and led the league in hits (217), stolen bases (73) and OPS (1.012) while adding 41 homers.
The 28-year-old’s ability as a base-stealer has been under the microscope now that he has a pair of surgically reconstructed ACLs, but Acuna did steal 11 bases in 16 games in the Venezuelan Winter League, indicating that he may be getting more confident in his recovery from his most recent knee injury. And even without speed, Acuna’s other tools are loud.
15. Cristopher Sanchez, SP – Dominican Republic
Sanchez doesn’t get outs with the same flair as his ace contemporaries — Skubal, Skenes and Yamamoto — but, forgive my Yogi-ism, an out’s an out.
Skenes and Skubal were the only MLB pitchers who accumulated more fWAR than Sanchez’s 6.4 last season. The Phillies southpaw has achieved these results by using a heavy sinker to induce a 95th percentile or greater ground ball rate in each of the last three seasons.
But his stuff also ticked up in 2025, as a career-high 212 strikeouts to only 44 walks netted Sanchez a 2.50 ERA and second-place finish in NL Cy Young voting. As the bona fide No. 1 of a Dominican Republic rotation that falls off quickly, Sanchez stands to start important games if the island nation’s stacked batting order lives up to expectations.
Kyle Schwarber, DH, United States – Over the last half-decade, Schwarber is solidly the MLB’s third-most prolific home run hitter after Judge and Ohtani with 219. He’s also coming off a career-high 56-homer season.
Kazuma Okamoto, 1B/3B, Japan – The new Blue Jays signee enters MLB having displayed an intriguing blend of plate discipline and power during his time in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.
Juan Soto, OF, Dominican Republic – Walks aren’t sexy, but they get the job done, and Soto gets the free pass more than any other player in MLB. In the words of Paul DePodesta, “he gets on base.” He also has back-to-back 40-home run seasons.
Bryce Harper, 1B, United States – Harper’s always had a penchant for performing in the clutch and will factor in heavily atop the U.S. lineup.
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF, United States – Coming off a 30-30 sophomore season, PCA is a free-swinging, superman-diving highlight reel. The definition of a high-event player.
Junior Caminero, 3B, Dominican Republic – The 22-year-old arrived in 2025, turning his monster bat speed and max exit velocities into a 45-home run season.
Fernando Tatis Jr., OF, Dominican Republic – Yeah, the Dominican Republic’s starting outfield projects to be Rodriguez, Soto and Tatis. Good luck.
Oneil Cruz, OF, Dominican Republic – Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, they also have Cruz off the bench. He surpassed his own MLB record for hardest hit ball with a 122.9 m.p.h. home run against the Milwaukee Brewers in May 2025.
Geraldo Perdomo, SS, Dominican Republic – Perdomo somewhat quietly finished fourth in NL MVP voting and fifth in MLB with 7.1 fWAR last season.
Eugenio Suarez, 3B, Venezuela – Geno cooled off significantly after being traded to Seattle at the deadline last season but still finished with 49 home runs — the second 49-home run season of his career.
Owen Caissie, OF, Canada –—The Burlington, Ont. native debuted with the Chicago Cubs last season (in Toronto against the Blue Jays) but didn’t play enough games to surrender his prospect status, and enters the season ranked No. 42 on MLB Pipeline’s top prospect rankings. He hit 22 home runs in triple-A last season.
Adam Macko, SP/RP, Canada – The Slovakian-Canadian and longtime Blue Jays prospect now finds himself on the cusp of the majors, waiting in the wings as rotational depth at triple-A Buffalo. The 97.4 m.p.h. fastball velocity he showed off early in spring training could help both in MLB and in Canada’s quest for the knockout round.
Jazz Chisholm Jr., 2B, Great Britain – Chisholm plays a bold brand of baseball, but Great Britain’s chances of advancing are still about as high as the hole-in-one he made the other day. Have fun facing Skubal.
Jac Caglianone, 1B/OF, Italy – Caglianone struggled after being called up to the Kansas City Royals last season, but showed why he was drafted sixth overall in 2024 with a 120.2 m.p.h. double against the Arizona Diamondbacks last Thursday.
Hyun-Jin Ryu, SP, Korea – After four seasons with the Blue Jays, Ryu returned to South Korea to play for his old team, the Hanwha Eagles, in 2024. The 38-year-old’s last WBC appearance was in 2009, when Korea lost in the finals to Japan.
