The Athletic has live coverage of USA vs. Venezuela in the 2026 World Baseball Classic final.
MIAMI — Several months before Team USA tabbed 24-year-old New York Mets pitcher Nolan McLean to start the championship game of the World Baseball Classic, manager Mark DeRosa fielded a series of phone calls from Matt Holliday, a seven-time All-Star and member of Team USA’s coaching staff. Holliday kept vouching for McLean, a fellow Oklahoma State Cowboy and one of the most promising pitching talents in Major League Baseball.
“He’s built for this,” DeRosa recalled Holliday saying before Monday’s semifinal matchup between Italy and Venezuela.
If Holliday’s assurance proves true, the more seasoned members of Team USA will all find out together. The usage of McLean in Tuesday’s finale at loanDepot Park highlights the tension between the excitement of the WBC and the responsibilities its participants owe to their employers that has hovered over the American club for weeks. Nowhere has that tension been more apparent than in the group’s pitching plans. When the roster was announced during the winter, Team USA boasted its finest collection of arms in the brief history of the exhibition. Yet they will hand the baseball on Tuesday to a player who has made only eight MLB starts.
In the eyes of Team USA officials, McLean possesses the best combination of poise and stuff of the available starters. Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes stymied the prodigious Dominican Republic lineup in the semifinal. San Francisco Giants stalwart Logan Webb handled Team Canada in the quarterfinal. Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal has rejoined Team USA as a spectator. Skubal left the team after pitching once during the pool play round, because he felt unable to stay on schedule for Detroit’s Opening Day if he continued to pitch in the tournament.
McLean did not have to juggle similar considerations. The elite fastball he displayed as a rookie in 2025 opened DeRosa’s eyes. The desire expressed by McLean convinced the manager to trust him for the tournament’s final game. And McLean’s schedule with the Mets, who have lined up new addition Freddy Peralta to start Opening Day, made Tuesday’s assignment possible.
“I think you’re crazy if you don’t want to do this, honestly,” McLean said. “Just getting the opportunity to put ‘USA’ on your chest, go out there and compete with the best players in the world.”
Not every top American pitcher could be corralled for the same commitment. In attempting to build a starting rotation, Team USA contacted other elite arms like Garrett Crochet of the Boston Red Sox, Hunter Brown of the Houston Astros and Bryan Woo of the Seattle Mariners, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. Those negotiations are not as simple as convincing a player to play; there is often lengthy dialogue with the player’s team in order to sign off. For various reasons, those players chose not to participate.
Assembling a staff has long been one of the biggest challenges for Team USA officials. Pitchers are products of strict routines, with each day of spring training geared toward the start of the season. Their schedules are far less flexible than those of hitters. And so Team USA has historically taken the field in the WBC without its best arms: Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Chris Sale and Zack Greinke have never taken part in the tournament, for example. Clayton Kershaw joined Team USA in 2026, but only in retirement.
So DeRosa pulled off a coup when he convinced Skubal, Skenes and Webb to play this spring. To fill out the staff, the team recruited Chicago Cubs starter Matthew Boyd, Mets starter Clay Holmes and Minnesota Twins starter Joe Ryan. A back injury nixed Ryan from the initial roster, and he stayed with the Twins rather than join the club for the final games in Miami. After pool play, Boyd rejoined the Cubs and Holmes rejoined the Mets when Team USA could not guarantee their teams that they’d receive enough innings to continue building up for the season.
And so McLean will get the ball on Tuesday evening. He will hope for better results than his first outing. McLean gave up three runs in three innings during the debacle against Team Italy. A chance to atone awaits, along with a chance to experience the excitement of the WBC’s final night.
“If you work your whole life at something, you want to be put in these spots,” McLean said. “So it’s just a dream come true to be able to get the ball in such a big moment. And it’s something I want to do.”
Ken Rosenthal contributed reporting.
