Tarik Skubal, pitching for his major league club, has been at the center of this controversy. Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Hyde, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The tournament has some controversies involving pitcher usage and participation.
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By Ben Rosen
TAMPA, Fla. — The 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) has seen changes in philosophy with the United States team regarding pitcher participation in the international tournament. However, there remains controversy.
Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal elected to leave the team after making one appearance in the tournament. Skubal, the two-time reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, is instead heading back to Tigers spring training.
“I didn’t sleep much the last few days,” said Skubal to MLB.com reporter David Adler. “I was trying to make it work. I’ve been on my phone trying to somehow make the calendar change days or somehow move Opening Day. But I don’t have that power.”
Skubal told Adler and the other reporters assembled that he did not expect the WBC environment to be as high-intensity as it turned out to be. The initial plan was to return to Tigers camp, but Skubal left the door open for a change in his post-outing TV interview with Ken Rosenthal.
“With him agreeing to come and pitch against Great Britain, we were always under the assumption that he was going to leave after pool play,” said Team USA manager Mark DeRosa to Adler. “
Skubal is scheduled to be a free agent after the 2026 Major League Baseball (MLB) season. For the 2026 season, Skubal will make $32 million. Spotrac projects that Skubal will receive an eight-year contract worth nearly $300 million with an average annual salary of more than $37 million.
“I just needed to make a decision for everyone involved,” said Skubal to Adler. “I didn’t want to drag things out. I’m not here for drama.”
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch told MLB.com reporter Jason Beck that the team and Skubal made the initial plan in January, but added that the Tigers were willing to adjust the plans.
“I feel for him because he’s tried to do everything for everybody, but it was hard to really see it working in the way that most people were assuming was a logical way for it to work,” said Hinch to Beck. “The timing became more and more of an issue.”
If Skubal had elected to remain with Team USA for the duration of the tournament, that would have changed the rotation. Logan Webb is in line to start the quarterfinal if Team USA gets there, and Skubal’s departure has no impact on that. Skubal could have started the championship game. Nolan McLean is instead in line to start the final.
Before Paul Skenes and Skubal pitching in the 2026 WBC, only three Cy Young Award winners had pitched for Team USA in the WBC after having won the award. Those Cy Young-winning pitchers were Roger Clemens in 2006, Jake Peavy in 2009, and R.A. Dickey in 2013. Meanwhile, Clemens and Skubal are the lone multi-time Cy Young Award winners in the group.
Based on the pitchers’ Baseball Reference career Wins Above Replacement (bWAR) totals at the time they pitched for Team USA in the WBC, only Clemens had a higher bWAR than Skubal among those four pitchers.
“For whatever reason, the United States, our best arms don’t show up,” said DeRosa to Rowan Kavner of Fox Sports before the tournament. “That being said, we’re trying to change that narrative.”
In the lead-up to the 2026 tournament, Ben Lindbergh of The Ringer compiled a chart of FanGraphs Wins Above Replacement (fWAR) values of the Team USA starting pitchers for all of their tournament rosters. For this exercise, Lindbergh looked both at past seasons and projected fWAR values.
Lindbergh found that the 2026 Team USA rotation had a higher fWAR the season immediately preceding the WBC than any other Team USA roster. Last season, the Team USA starting pitchers compiled a 45.9 fWAR in 2025 with a projected 35.8 fWAR for the 2026 season. The 2006 staff is the only other Team USA rotation with a previous season 30.0 fWAR total or better.
Lindbergh found that Skubal has the highest average fWAR when evaluating the previous season total and WBC participation year projection, compared to any other top four starting pitcher on a previous Team USA roster. The average for Skubal is a 6.5 fWAR, with only Dontrelle Willis having a 6.1 fWAR average in 2006, also being above a 6.0.
To sum this whole situation up in the context of Team USA’s WBC history with starting pitching, Skubal’s decision has brought some criticism for the way he has handled the whole deal. At the same time, Team USA has Skubal, Skenes, and Webb, three of the top five pitchers in fWAR since Skenes debuted, in the same rotation. It may never be seen again.