When the World Baseball Classic gets rolling next spring, there will be at least one Oriole to follow. On Tuesday morning, several more names were added to the Team USA roster, with one being relevant
for O’s fans: shortstop Gunnar Henderson.
Henderson may end up being the third baseman for the USA squad, rather than his usual Orioles position of shortstop, since an earlier announcement for Team USA revealed Bobby Witt Jr. would be joining the roster. That’s a problem for the USA manager Mark DeRosa to sort out in a few months; the first pool game for Team USA will be March 6 against Brazil in Houston.
Teams don’t have to submit 30-man rosters until February, so there are two more months where more Orioles could trickle onto rosters. Henderson was the most obvious and perhaps only worthy addition for the United States. Had the 2025 season gone better for several players, including Adley Rutschman and Colton Cowser, maybe they’d be deserving of spots on the American, but as we know, it didn’t go well for those guys, so they probably don’t.
Last time around, Team USA had Cedric Mullins, with other Orioles making it onto rosters as Anthony Santander played for Venezuela and Dean Kremer joined Team Israel. Presumably, if Kremer is interested in pitching in the WBC again, he’ll have a roster spot waiting for him with Israel.
Will any other Orioles get in to the action this time around? There’s always the possibility of random minor leaguers joining through older family connections to places that aren’t baseball powerhouses.
For players who’ve already made it to the majors, you could maybe make the case for Samuel Basallo as a catcher for the Dominican Republic, depending on the interest level of more senior and proven players. The 2023 WBC had Francisco Mejía and Gary Sánchez catching for the Dominican. If Félix Bautista wasn’t recovering from major shoulder surgery, he’d be an easy pick. Alas.
Even as much as he struggled last year, the Cuban team probably doesn’t have so many relief pitchers who are better than Yennier Cano. Tyler O’Neill was on the 2023 Team Canada roster and perhaps could be again, if he wants to be. Don’t get hurt.
