LAKELAND, Fla. — Timing is everything. You’ve heard that somewhere before, right? But that isn’t just true for apartment renters, flight catchers and your Aunt Millie, that time she won the lottery. It’s also true for the World Baseball Classic.

So ask yourself this: Is March the right time for such a cool event?

Here’s my vote: No!

But nobody cares how I vote. So let’s listen to the thoughts of a man who has worn the Team USA uniform — and wishes he was still wearing it.

That would be Tarik Skubal, two-time Cy Young Award winner, ace of the Detroit Tigers, impending free agent and a fellow who is scheduled to start on Opening Day just two weeks from now.

“I think what needs to change is the timing of the tournament,” Skubal said Wednesday morning, “because it’s tough on all the starters — not just myself included.”

So what would be a better time?

“If you want the best players playing and not risking health,” Skubal said, “I think it’s midseason.”

Is anyone out there listening? Well, I was. So, as always, I’m here to help. There’s a perfect way to turn the WBC into the greatest show on the sporting earth. So, of course, I laid out my hair-brained idea to Skubal on Wednesday, on his first day back in Tigers spring training camp. Here it comes:

POOL PLAY: Let’s handle the first round of the WBC exactly how it’s done now. In the first half of March, send 20 teams to four sites around the world and play until just eight teams survive and advance. So nothing has changed — yet.

FINAL THREE ROUNDS: Here’s where this gets fun. We’re about to create the most amazing week on the baseball calendar — by moving the WBC’s Elite Eight, Final Four and Finals to July. In fact, let’s move them to the site of the All-Star Game. Then “Baseball Week in America” would look like this, with all of it on the same field:

Saturday — MLB Draft
Sunday — Futures Game
Monday — Home Run Derby
Tuesday — All-Star Game
Wednesday — Elite Eight doubleheader
Thursday — Elite Eight doubleheader
Friday — Semifinal doubleheader
Saturday or Sunday — WBC championship game

I’d watch!

“Brilliant,” an official of one WBC team told me Wednesday, when I laid out that schedule for him. “That’s the best idea I’ve heard all year.”

Great. So that’s two of us who like it. But what about Skubal, the man who led me into presenting this brainstorm in the first place? He had many thoughts!

The WBC is great. Moving the final three rounds to July would make it even better. (Sam Navarro / Imagn Images)

HOW LONG WOULD THE BREAK BE? That was his biggest question, and it’s a good one. I think that, under my plan, we’d be looking at an eight-day All-Star break, with the season halting after Sunday’s games, as it does now, and then resuming on the Tuesday after the All-Star Game.

“But then,” Skubal said, “you’re impacting all the guys that aren’t playing (in the WBC). So that’s a whole different discussion. How long is the break going to be? Can we get the games done in six days? Can we get the games done in seven days? But then it’s like, OK, if you’re taking a starter, they can only make one start, right? So I don’t know how to make it right.”

I think my schedule works. But I understand where he’s coming from. So here’s my response …

WHY CAN’T WE USE THE 2028 OLYMPICS AS OUR GUIDE? In just two years, Olympic baseball is coming to Los Angeles, and it looks as if major-league players are going to be allowed to play. How long will the season stop to accommodate that Olympic tournament? We don’t know yet. But it will likely be negotiated as part of the next collective bargaining agreement. So I have a proposal:

However long the All-Star/Olympic break is in 2028, let’s take that same break during WBC years. Let the Olympics provide the template. Then we’ll all follow it any time there’s a WBC to stage. Skubal’s reaction to that: Two thumbs up.

“I kind of like that idea,” he said. “It’s interesting, for sure. Pool play early. You win your pool (or finish in the) top two, then it’s only eight teams, and you can essentially get those games done in four days. If you want to, give a team an off day (after the) quarterfinals, because then bullpen guys are going to throw back-to-back-to-back.

“If you go quarterfinal, semifinal, off day, final, so everyone’s ready for the final? Yeah, maybe. Maybe that’s the answer. I don’t know. I don’t have the answer, nor do I want to try and figure it out.”

But he does know this:

PLAYING THE WHOLE WBC IN MARCH IS A PROBLEM — So what’s the big issue with playing this whole event in March? Skubal is the poster boy for that issue.

The goal is to assemble a rotation full of the best starting pitchers on earth. But why does that create so many issues in March? Because if you have a rotation of aces, they all need to be on a schedule to start Opening Day. And that’s not possible, because the baseball calendar is such a crazy, unyielding animal.

Skubal knows this well. And not just because that calendar compelled him to leave Team USA. Because he tried to see if it was possible to invent a whole new calendar. And no, we’re not making that up.

“I’ve been thinking about it,” he said with a laugh. “I tried to add a day from Opening Day. I’m like, ‘Can the 25th (of March) happen twice?’ You know, I went: 24th, 24th, 25th, 25th, 26th. That’s what I’m trying to do. You know what they do with leap year, like can I add in that extra day?”

Turns out the Greek god of calendar-izing wouldn’t sign off on that. But Skubal is still thinking, because he sees the problem with the WBC so clearly now.

“The timing just needs to get better,” he said, “if we want to really run out our best arms and let them just play.”

So July is that time. The best pitchers in the game are in midseason form. They’re on different schedules. The risk of injury is lower. The pitch counts would be higher. It’s perfect. Except for one thing:

HOW WOULD PITCH COUNTS WORK IN POOL PLAY — This was actually Skubal’s first question after I presented my plan: “Would you limit guys’ starts in pool play (with) pitch counts?” he asked, “because that was a big deal.”

Why? Because starting pitchers on major-league rosters had a cap of 65 pitches in that round. Pitchers not on those rosters didn’t face those limits. So if those same pitch caps and rules apply in my plan, he said, “then it’s going to favor teams that don’t have guys in affiliated ball, because they can be built up for six or seven innings.”

OK, good point. But the great thing about putting me in charge is, I’m open to anything. Maybe we could move that first round back a week or so. Then pitchers are more built up and closer to the start of the season, so we could raise those pitch caps. Problem solved? Done.

“The timing just needs to get better,” Tarik Skubal said, “if we want to really run out our best arms and let them just play.” (Alex Slitz / Getty Images)

WOULD PLAYERS LOSE INTEREST IF WE SPLIT THE WBC IN TWO? One baseball official I surveyed had that fear: It would be harder to recruit players in March if it’s just pool play and it isn’t leading toward the big finale.

Maybe. But an official of one WBC team had a solution: To be part of the final three rounds, a player would have to commit to the first round, with only limited roster changes allowed in later rounds, except in case of injury or other extenuating circumstances.

Get the picture? If Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper want to celebrate in July, they have to buy into the March portion of the event, too. So does that mean another problem is solved? Done.

WOULD FANS LOSE INTEREST IF WE SPLIT THE WBC IN TWO? That’s another question posed by the same baseball official. Would it dilute interest in the early round of the WBC if it wasn’t the beginning of a continuous march toward the championship rounds the following week?

That’s possible. On the other hand, if Skubal and Paul Skenes are pitching, and Judge and Bobby Witt Jr. are playing, and there are literally world championship implications on the line, I’d watch no matter when those games are played. But as long as we’re going down this path, there’s one more point I’d like to make about “interest.”

The WBC appeals to fans from all over the world. But why compete against March Madness when the WBC could own the sports spotlight in July? (Kenneth Richmond / Getty Images)

WHY DOES THIS EVENT KEEP COMPETING AGAINST MARCH MADNESS? I’ve been asking this question for years. If it’s the biggest possible audience the WBC is after, why the heck is it being held in March?

March is for Madness — and not baseball madness. So how much of the potential audience for this event is peeling off to watch basketball, even if it’s just their favorite conference tournament? It might not peel off in a house like mine, but what about the houses of more casual fans — the ones who only care about crushing their NCAA hoops pool bracket? You know the answer.

So I could easily rest my case there, except I have an even better question to ask: If we move the WBC to July and create “Baseball Week in America,” what other grand sporting spectacles is that competing against — in literally any other sport?

Want a few moments to think about it? Heck, I’ll give you a few hours. Even a few days. No matter how long you wrack your brain, the answer won’t change:

Do this in July, and baseball will own the sporting stage every night for a week! 

What else is going on in sports to compete with it that week? Not. One. Thing.

So what’s the downside to this idea? I’ve thrown it out there before, and I’ve never heard one. Sure, there will be complications and logistics issues. But guess what? We’ll overcome all of them for the Olympics. So who’s to say it can’t be done to make the WBC the greatest sports show on earth?

“I want to play for Team USA in (the Olympics in) ’28,” Skubal said. “Hopefully, we get the Olympics right, and we’re doing it in the middle of the season, because I would love the timing. You know, it all came back to timing.”

Timing. It’s the magic word that makes everything in life more workable. So haven’t we just fixed the WBC’s timing problem? I think we have. You can send your thank you notes to me, to the Olympic Committee and, of course, to a guy named Tarik Skubal.