Dodgers ace throws his hat in the ring to join Aaron Judge on USA's WBC team in 2026

The 2023 World Baseball Classic breathed life into baseball in what's typically a dead zone — the doldrums of early March, when the relief at seeing baseball return in spring training has worn off and the anticipation for consequential games has started to try fans' patience. The WBC offered not only consequential games, but national rosters stacked full to the brim (and plenty of eventual Dodgers star power).

Team USA had Mookie Betts, Trea Turner, Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt, and the captain Mike Trout — and that was just a start. Freddie Freeman joined Team Canada, Randy Arozarena lit up Team Mexico, Francisco Lindor represented Puerto Rico, and then there was Team Japan, an unbelieveable assembly of talent headed by Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki.

Ohtani striking out his then-teammate Trout to win the entire thing was one of the most serendipitous and memorable moments maybe in all of baseball history, but there was a fundamental element of fun to the entire tournament. Under what other circumstances will we ever get to experience a Czech electrician throwing 70 MPH striking out Shohei Ohtani?

The next WBC is set for 2026, and Team USA is all but guaranteed to be a veritable All-Star assembly of players once again. On Monday, manager Mark DeRosa announced that Yankees captain Aaron Judge would also lead the next team.

The Dodgers' Tyler Glasnow was quick to make a case for his participation in the tournament as well. During an appearance on Foul Territory, he said, "I want to [compete] extremely bad."

Tyler Glasnow expresses interest in representing Dodgers on Team USA's 2026 World Baseball Classic roster

Glasnow added, however, that he knows his history of injury could keep him from competing and he would put his responsibility to the Dodgers above participation in the WBC. He said, "If I was healthy the last five years and threw 200 innings, it would be a no-brainer."

A lot of pitchers were disallowed or discouraged from competing in 2023 by their teams, and Edwin Díaz sort of proved them right when he had to go for season-ending knee surgery before the season even started; he was injured celebrating a win with Team Puerto Rico. However, the interest is certainly there from pitchers and position players across MLB, so it'll really just be a matter of whether or not teams let them.

The World Baseball Classic was undoubtedly good for baseball, and Judge joining the 2026 team already just foreshadows another thrilling tournament next year. Hopefully, we'll see a lot of Dodgers out there.