On Tuesday, the Puerto Rican Baseball Federation announced that Detroit Tigers’ All-Star outfielder intends to play for Team Puerto Rico in the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Team general manager Carlos
Beltran had invited Greene to play for the club. The Tigers outfielder declined the invitation back in 2023 as he was coming off an injury plagued rookie season.
The WBC will get underway on March 5 in Japan at the Tokyo Dome as Chinese Taipei and Australia square off in the first round. The rest of the team pools start play on March 6, with rounds set to be played at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Daikin Park in Houston, Texas, and as LoanDepot Park in Miami, Florida.
Team Japan will be looking to make it back-to-back titles after a thrilling victory over Team USA in the last edition back in March of 2023. You may recall Shohei Ohtani striking out long-time teammate Mike Trout to close that one out. Each of the four pools will have five teams playing a round-robin format to determine which are the top two teams. Those two teams will then advance to the quarterfinals in Miami and Houston. The semifinals and finals will be held in Miami, with the championship game set for March 17.
New York Mets shortstop, Francisco Lindor, is set to captain Team Puerto Rico this time around. Greene, whose grandmother is Puerto Rican, was one of several players invited that you might not initially realize has some Puerto Rican heritage. Blue Jays outfielder George Springer and Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado have both been invited to play for Team Puerto Rico as well.
Greene will be teaming up with long-time Team Puerto Rico stalwart, Javier Báez. Carlos Correa will also return, as will reliever Edwin Diaz, who just left the Mets to ink a three-year, $69 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, will handle closing duties. Yadier Molina will manage the squad.
Starter Seth Lugo, outfielder Heliot Ramos, and relievers Fernando Cruz of the Yankees and Emilio Pagán of the Reds are also set to play for the squad.
Team Puerto Rico has come close, but never won the WBC, and that roster of stars will likely be making their final run. They memorably knocked off the Dominican Republic in 2023 only for Diaz to suffer a season ending knee injury during the celebration. Hopefully there will be no repeat of that sort of thing. Team Mexico ultimately beat the Puerto Rican squad in the second round to eliminate them last time around.
Team USA, as you might imagine, is pursuing Tigers’ ace Tarik Skubal to get him to participate as well, but so far Skubal hasn’t committed to playing in the tournament.
