Canada's batting order is poised to make noise at 2026 World Baseball Classic
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Team Canada's batting order is poised to make some noise at the 2026 World Baseball Classic.
The young core that emerged during a 2-2, third-place finish last time looks set to return largely intact, with the significant addition of slugger Josh Naylor, who missed the previous event due to caution around his recovery from a 2021 ankle injury.
With him and brother Bo Naylor behind the plate, Edouard Julien at second, Otto Lopez at shortstop, Abraham Toro at third, an outfield of Tyler O'Neill, Denzel Clarke and Owen Caissie and Freddie Freeman, health-permitting, aiming to again split time at first base/DH, Canada is poised to field one of the better batting orders it's taken to the Classic.
Josh Naylor is expected to be on Canada's roster for the 2026 WBC, GM Greg Hamilton and manager Ernie Whitt confirmed to Ryan Divish. Josh «will join his brother, Bo, on the team,» Divish said.
As always at the spring-time event, piecing together a pitching staff is more of a challenge, although starters Michael Soroka and Cal Quantrill and relievers Matt Brash, Rob Zastryzny, and perhaps even Jordan Romano all currently on board with playing offer a solid base.
«We're going to start potentially a major-league lineup and have some depth off the bench that will be of major-league quality as well. We haven't really had that too many times. That's exciting,» Greg Hamilton, Baseball Canada's director of national teams, said last week at the winter meetings in Orlando, Fla. «Obviously pitching is everybody's variable, but I do think we're going to have enough. It's going to be a really competitive pool, but it's a very balanced pool, one where on any given night, anybody's got a realistic chance. We're going to be one of those teams that definitely aspires to get out of the first round.»
Canadian players excited to represent their country at the 2026 WBC
Canada lost win-and-advance games to Mexico at the inaugural Classic in 2006 and in 2023, and to the United States in 2013, while going winless at the 2009 and 2017 editions.
No matter how it all plays out and whatever happens with the approval process between now and March 1, when the Canadian team gathers in Dunedin, Fla., for a short camp hosted at the Blue Jays' Player Development Complex, manager Ernie Whitt expects his team to make some noise.
«The pride and the passion that the Canadian players bring - not to shortchange the U.S, but we've been doing it a lot of years and we've seen it, what comes out of them when they put on the uniform,» said Whitt, who's managed the national team at each tournament so far. «There's a lot of excitement from the players that we've spoken with, so we'll see what happens.»
The Blue Jays will play a WBC Exhibition Game against Team Canada on March 3rd in Dunedin FLA.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 16 | 58 ANSWERS Canada's batting order is poised to make noise at 2026 World Baseball Classic Is this the best potential lineup Canada has ever fielded at the World Baseball Classic? | ||
| Yes | 49 | 84.5 % |
| No | 9 | 15.5 % |
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