The 2026 World Baseball Classic is well underway.
Early mornings, extra innings, slaughter rules, ludicrous dingers from Kyle Schwarber, and walkoffs—so far, this tourney has had it all. With pool play set to wrap up in a few days, I thought now would be a good time to take stock into how the Red Sox’s best representatives have been.
That’s a fool’s errand, though, isn’t it?
With all due respect to Nate Eaton and company, one man in particular has been setting the world (baseball classic) on fire, as you
may know already.
His name is Masataka Yoshida.
In a trio of pool play games, the lefty outfielder/DH option for Boston has logged an OPS nearly reaching 1.800. He’s driven in six runs thanks to three extra base hits, most notably the clutch two-run home run he notched to put Japan on the board against Australia on Sunday. The go-ahead blast with two outs in the seventh gave the Japanese the lead, one that they didn’t surrender afterwards.
At this rate, Yoshida could break the record for the most RBI in a single World Baseball Classic. That high water mark of 13 was set by…well, Masataka Yoshida in 2023’s iteration of the tournament! Masa’s hot start in 2026 has added onto his impressive resume in this tournament; last time around, he went 9 for 22 at the dish en route to Japan’s third WBC title.
Now granted, I’ve still got some reservations about Yoshida heading into the new MLB season. His tenure in Boston hasn’t exactly been consistent, to put it charitably, and his spot in the everyday lineup isn’t clear. I can only tolerate so many grounders to second. To boot, there’s only so much we can deduce from his performance against—respectfully—teams like Australia. It’s not like he’s doing this against prime Pedro right now.
He doesn’t pick the opponents he faces, though, and the pair of teams he’s already faced aren’t exactly full of scrubs. Even if he were consistently playing against a bunch of slapdick prospects (to use a baseball quote), perhaps the most notable thing with Yoshida’s play so far is that there hasn’t been any sign of his shoulder bothering him—and if it is bothering him, he’s doing a damn good job of hiding that fact. The shoulder issue kept him on the injured list for a big part of 2025; if he’s put that trouble behind him, maybe he can turn a corner for the Red Sox in the final years of his contract.
But let’s just break down what we’ve seen in the (albeit limited) sample size this month into the most simple terms possible: Masataka Yoshida—a guy who literally has a ground ball rate over 50% over his major league career—is not not hitting into ground balls half of the time during the WBC after major issues with his shoulder. As a matter of fact, he’s hitting piss missiles into the power alley. Yoshida is at his best when he’s hitting piss missiles into the power alley.
Is this smoke and mirrors? I don’t think that’s an unfair a fair question to ask.
Is this a run that can set him up for some sort of success in 2026? Again, I think it’s very fair to ask that.
Keep on keepin’ on, Macho Man.
