TUCSON, Ariz. — The 20-team field for the 2026 World Baseball Classic is set, and Mike Trout can’t wait. The Los Angeles Angels star outfielder said this week if Team USA beckons, he will answer the call.
“I had a blast doing it [in 2023], and I plan to do it again,” Trout said after coming out of an exhibition game Monday at Tempe Diablo Stadium. “I haven’t heard anything yet. Nobody’s brought it up to me, but if they ask, I’m there.”
No doubt, Team USA will ask.
On Thursday night at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium, Brazil locked up the final slot in the 2026 WBC with a 6-4 victory over Germany. On Tuesday, Colombia went 3-0 in the round, becoming the first of the two teams coming out of this qualifier. Nicaragua and Chinese Taipei emerged from the Taipei Qualifying Round last week.
The top four teams in each of the four pools from the 2023 WBC automatically qualify for the next tournament, leaving these four open spots.
The 2026 WBC is scheduled for March 5-17. Pool play will take place at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico; the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo and Daikin Park in Houston. The quarterfinals, semis and championship game are slated for Miami’s LoanDepot Park.
It was in Miami in 2023 when Trout and Shohei Ohtani contributed to the seminal moment of the tournament. The two players, then Angels teammates, faced each other with two outs in the ninth inning and Japan leading, 3-2. Ohtani, before his second elbow reconstruction surgery, was throwing gas and whiffed Trout on six pitches.
Trout flailed on a 100-mph slider that tailed just outside the strike zone on a full count. It could happen again.
“That’s [the matchup] everyone wanted to see,” Trout recalled. “Obviously, it’s not the outcome I expected or wanted. We’ll see what happens.”
Since that moment two years ago, Trout has only played in 111 regular-season games, hitting 28 homers and driving in 58 runs during that span. Last year, he underwent two surgeries to repair torn meniscus in his left knee, causing him to miss all but 29 games. Trout hasn’t played in more than 119 games in a single season since winning his last of four American League MVPs in 2019.
To take some pressure off his knee, Angels manager Ron Washington has moved Trout this year to right field from his usual spot in center, and the slugger said it makes little difference.
“You still have to catch the ball,” he said. “I feel good. My body feels great. I just love being out there right now. … I know what I’m capable of. Once I’m out there I’ll be good.”
But Trout hasn’t been the same since the 2020 pandemic-shortened season, the last season in which he didn’t miss significant time due to injury.
In his 14 years playing in MLB, all with the Angels, Trout has only been to the playoffs once, in 2014, and has never won a postseason game, even in the six seasons he played alongside Ohtani. Trout still has six years to go on his 12-year, $426 million contract.
In contrast, Ohtani has thrived. He was named the MVP of the 2023 WBC, hitting .435 and tallying a 1.86 ERA, winning two starts as a pitcher and notching one save in his first relief appearance since the end of the 2016 season when he played in Japan for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
Ohtani followed that up with an AL MVP in 2023 and the 2024 National League MVP after signing a record 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who defeated the New York Yankees in a five-game World Series last season.
Ohtani didn’t pitch in 2024 as he recovered from elbow surgery, but as the Dodgers’ designated hitter, he became the first player to amass 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in a season, with 54 and 59 respectively.
“His season was pretty incredible,” Trout said. “It was fun to watch and to follow. It was good for baseball, too. Everyone knows what he’s capable of. To be able to put up that kind of numbers consistently is pretty amazing.”
There’s little doubt that Ohtani will be back in the 2026 WBC with the Japanese team that is ranked first in the world. It’s probable that his Dodgers teammates Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki will again join him. Chicago Cubs ace Shōta Imanaga was also on that WBC team.
The Japanese have won three of the five previous WBC tournaments—2006, 2009 and 2023. The Dominicans won in 2013 and the U.S. in 2017.
With Ohtani in his prime, Japan will likely be favored again, especially if he’s able to pitch. He’s been throwing bullpens this spring training but won’t face live hitters until after the Dodgers open the season against the Cubs in Japan, manager Dave Roberts said Thursday. He’s not expected to pitch in a big-league game until mid-May at the earliest.
“I watched him do what he does on the mound from center field for all those years,” Trout said. “I’ve never seen a player like him. Not both ways like that. He’s incredible.”
