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Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates, one of the best and most compelling pitchers in Major League Baseball, will pitch for Team USA in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, he announced on Tuesday. 

Skenes, a 22-year-old right-hander, is a former No. 1 overall pick who's in his second big-league season. As a rookie in 2024, Skenes started the All-Star Game, claimed Rookie of the Year honors in the National League, and finished third in the NL Cy Young vote. Throw in his similarly stellar work in 2025, and he's roughly pitched a full season in the majors. For his career to date, Skenes in 187 ⅔  innings across 32 starts has an ERA of 2.16 (195 ERA+) with 223 strikeouts and 47 unintentional walks. That's good for a WAR of 7.3. All that excellence is on top of Skenes' star power – achieved despite toiling for a bad team and a team owner unwilling to invest in the roster around Skenes. 

One of Team USA's shortcomings during the most recent WBC in 2023, in which the United States finished runner-up to Japan, was the lack of frontline starting pitching. The addition of Skenes quite obviously addresses that need in the most effective and attention-grabbing possible way. 

Speaking of grabbing attention, here's Team USA manager Mark DeRosa, who also skippered the 2023 team, with the announcement: 

Skenes as an amateur pitched for Air Force before transferring to LSU and positioning himself as one of the most coveted arms ever coming out of the college ranks. As he explains, he'd been planning to enlist and train to become a pilot before his immense pitching skills pushed him in the direction of professional baseball. In light of that background, it's no surprise that Skenes will be an eager participant in next year's tournament, which gets underway with pool play in early March. 

In addition to Skenes, New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has committed to play for Team USA for the first time in a WBC. He'll also serve as team captain, a role he already fills for the Yankees. 

Team USA has won the WBC only once, in 2017. The presence of Skenes, though, will greatly improve the U.S.'s chances of joining Japan as the only nations to win multiple WBCs.