Royals fans have one more reason to watch 2026 WBC after surprising Team USA decision

The winter months have reached a pinnacle stage. The final moves of the offseason are trickling in and teams are gearing up for the start of spring training in two weeks time.

But 2026 is a bit different than normal years. While teams are preparing for the upcoming regular season, the global baseball scene will be congregating for the World Baseball Classic from March 5-17.

The Royals have already had several names commit to participating in the tournament for their respective nations, but after every roster was finalized on Thursday, one surprise name snuck their way into the mix.

When Team USA announced their final roster for next month's showcase, it was revealed that veteran starter Michael Wacha was included in manager Mark DeRosa's squad.

Royals' Michael Wacha cracks Team USA's roster for upcoming World Baseball Classic

Now, stating that Wacha's inclusion was surprising is by no means meant to be a slight on him as a ballplayer, as he's been one of the more consistent and valuable arms in the Royals rotation and in baseball in general for several years now.

The surprise comes form the fact that there's just so many immensely talented American pitchers that many likely would've projected ahead of a mid-3.00s ERA name like Wacha.

But Wacha is coming off a respectable and reliable workhorse season in which he threw 172.2 innings across 31 starts to a 3.86 ERA. This marked the fourth straight season where he's posted a sub-4.00 ERA and second in which he tossed 160.0+ innings and sported an fWAR greater than 3.0.

And if we're talking about forming a traditional five-man rotation on this roster, Wacha does have a strong argument to take up that fifth and final spot in the staff behind Paul Skenes, Tarik Skubal, Logan Webb and Joe Ryan.

Even if he doesn't though, given it's earlier in the spring an pitchers likely aren't fully stretched out to handle a full regular season workload, finding extended innings out of the bullpen could be key, making the United States' starting pitching surplus all the more important.

This will be Wacha's second time donning the red, white and blue, but it's his first since 2011, when he participated for them as part of the Collegiate National Team.

Wacha is now the second Royal on this U.S. squad, joining his superstar teammate Bobby Witt Jr., who made his commitment back in the summer.