What an absolute blast of a tournament. To be entirely honest, I’ve never paid close attention to it until this year, but you can be sure I’ll be watching closely the next time they play one because that was some of the most fun I’ve ever gotten to have watching baseball. It doesn’t hurt that starting with the semi-finals, no matter who walked away with the trophy, my favorite team was going to be represented.
Is it a coincidence that the team with the most Royals ended up winning the tournament? You might be tempted to say yes, but the tournament was frankly dominated by Royals and Royals-centric storylines.
Maikel Garcia
Maikel – pronounced the same as Michael, we now know – is obviously the biggest story in the aftermath as he walked away with MVP honors after slashing .385/.393/.577/.970 with a pair of doubles, a home run, and three stolen bases in the tournament. He was so highly regarded by Team Venezuela after his 2025 breakout campaign that they chose him to bat second in every game of the tournament.
But not only did Maikel have a tremendous slash line, he consistently showed up in the biggest moments of the tournament. In the final game of Pool Play, while Venezuela was trying to defeat the Dominican Republic in a battle for the top seed out of the pool, Maikel went four-for-four with a double and a walk to help keep his team in the game. When they played underdog against Samurai Japan, Maikel Garcia lit the spark of the comeback with a two-run home run while his team was down three and seemed destined for an early exit. In the semi-final against Team Italy, his single drove in the go-ahead run. And in the final, Garcia belted a sacrifice fly to drive in Salvador Perez to give Venezuela their first run in a game they never trailed in.
In other words, he was good and clutch, and it’s hard to have a better tournament than that.
Salvador Perez
Speaking of Salvy, he wasn’t the offensive force for Venezuela that Maikel was, but he provided veteran leadership and postseason experience to a relatively young roster as Venezuela’s captain. He also made an absolutely nails throw to catch Seiya Suzuki trying to steal second when they played Japan. He is also credited by his teammates with being a steadying defensive presence behind the plate that helped their pitchers do their best work, including holding the high-powered USA offense to only three hits in the final.
Bobby Witt Jr.
Bobby, along with Maikel and the next person in this recap, had something of a coming-out party at the tournament. Not only did he slash .250/.400/.333/.733, but he stole three bases, walked more than he struck out as the leadoff man, and made some eye-popping defensive plays that spawned one of the most entertaining memes of the tournament.
Sure, it would have been better if Bobby had treated us to a bomb, but he still did plenty of good work.
Vinnie Pasquantino
Vinnie captained Team Italy and is credited with doing much of the recruiting that led to a team that made Italy’s first-ever Semifinal appearance. He didn’t get a hit until the final game of pool play, but he was the one who insisted on the inclusion of the espresso machine in the dugout that became the central aspect of their many, many home run celebrations. He also made several terrific defensive plays at first, saving his fellow infielders from a variety of throwing errors.
When he did start hitting, he put the team on his back. Against Mexico, he slammed three home runs – the first time it had ever been done in WBC history – to lead his team to victory. In the semi-final against Puerto Rico, he drove in the first run with a single against Seth Lugo, then went back to his teammates, Dominic Canzone and Jac Caglianone, with some advice about facing Lugo, before they each earned RBI hits of their own and chased Seth from the contest.
Jac Caglianone
Vinnie wasn’t the only hitter getting things done for Team Italy, of course, Jac Caglianone also showed up in a big way, slashing .286/.500/.571/1.071, walking more than he struck out, and even stole a base. He hit a home run to cap off an at-bat against Ryan Yarbrough and Team USA in the fourth inning to make it clear Italy wasn’t content with the lead they had built to that point and intended to finish that game. At one point, he went seven straight plate appearances without making an out – the game against USA was smack in the middle of that streak – and he drove in runs in three of Italy’s six games
Seth Lugo
This wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the pitching and while Seth “Quaterrican” Lugo had a horrible outing against Italy in the Quarterfinal, he pitched four scoreless innings in Puerto Rico’s first tournament game against Colombia to set the tone for his team.
Michael Wacha
Wacha only made it into one game for Team USA, but he pitched three innings of relief and struck out five without walking any. He did give up three runs in his final inning of work, but he chewed up enough innings in what had been a comfortable USA lead to preserve the relievers for the more dangerous games to come.
Luinder Avila
Avila, despite the fact that there is a very real chance he won’t even break camp with the big league club, had probably the best WBC of any of the Royals pitchers. He pitched in two games for Venezuela, totalling 4.1 innings. He walked three while striking out three, but only allowed a single unearned run and was dominant against Italy with 2.1 scoreless pitched in that semifinal match, holding the line until his team’s offense could get things together against former Royal Michael Lorenzen.
Others
Carlos Estévez pitched a scoreless inning for the Dominican Republic. Eric Cerantola pitched 1.1 scoreless over two appearances for Canada. Royal non-roster invitee Abraham Toro outslashed all of his fellow Canadians .421/.476/.842/1.318. Oscar Rayo pitched 1.1 scoreless innings for Nicaragua.
All in all, it was a fantastic tournament. And it was especially fun for Royals fans. Even better, we are now a week away from the official opening day for MLB play, and we can root for all of these guys to succeed together!
