Showalter had previously expressed trepidation about his players participating in the tournament, mostly because he was worried about them ramping up too quickly for the regular season. He doubled down on this midway through the 2023 season, his last with the Mets, blaming a lot of the club’s troubles on the aftereffects of the tournament.

On the latest episode of "Baseball Bar-B-Cast," Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman officially kicked off their 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) content. With Aaron Judge recently named captain of Team USA, the duo couldn't resist diving into one of their favorite pastimes: dreaming up the most stacked, no-holds-barred Team USA rosters imaginable.