Yankees captain Aaron Judge has turned the page on last season’s disappointing World Series finish, and entered spring training determined to “rewrite the script” by capturing a long-awaited championship. But the superstar slugger wouldn’t mind competing for a different title next season while also wearing a different uniform.
When the World Baseball Classic returns in March 2026, it’s safe to say that Team USA will reach out to Judge for his services. And while there’s still plenty of time for the 32-year-old to commit to participating in the international tournament for the first time, he’s certainly entertaining the idea.
“I think that would be pretty fun,” Judge recently told Deesha Thosar of FOX Sports. “It just depends. See where I’m at in my career at that point. Hopefully, they still want me… It would be cool to represent your country. They made it to the finals [in 2023], but they didn’t win it. So we gotta win it. We’ll see. We’ll see.”
The last installment of the World Baseball Classic certainly lived up to its hype. The championship game in Miami featured Team USA falling to Team Japan, and the dramatic ninth inning concluded with Shohei Ohtani striking out Mike Trout in an epic superstar bout.
Judge could’ve experienced the moment two years ago, but the timing conflicted with his free-agency process and return to the Yankees as their official leader. Perhaps he’s the missing piece to Team USA’s puzzle — they recruited four MVPs and nearly two dozen All-Stars to its 30-man roster in 2023.
With the addition of Judge in Team USA’s lineup, they’d be in a prime position to capture their second WBC championship since the event’s inception in 2006. After all, he’s now a two-time MVP winner, who led the league in WAR (10.8), home runs (58), RBI (144), and walks (133) last season.
Judge isn’t the only Yankee interested in WBC conversation. According to Thosar, shortstop Anthony Volpe would like to play for Team USA next year, and infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. has interest suiting up for Great Britain. In 2023, New York had three WBC participants — Jonathan Loaisiga, Gleyber Torres, and Kyle Higashioka.
The 2026 WBC will feature a 20-team field, with four pools of five teams. Pool play is scheduled to begin on March 5, and Miami is slated to once again host the championship game (March 17). The reigning champion Japanese team has won the event three times.
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