Like Royals fans, general manager J.J. Picollo rather enjoyed watching the World Baseball Classic.
In addition to many tight, exciting games, the Royals players representing their country were standouts. Third baseman Maikel Garcia was the WBC MVP, and he and teammate Salvador Perez sent items to the National Baseball Hall of Fame after helping Venezuela win the title.
Right fielder Jac Caglianone had four hits, four RBIs, five walks and four strikeouts for Team Italy and first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino had a three-homer game. Shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.’s defensive wizardry for Team USA wowed fans, too.
“Exactly what we witnessed was what you hope they get out of it,” Picollo said. “High-intensity games helps development. You kind of get to see how your players play in the big moments, and our guys did great. So we feel like it really turned out well, and the guys really enjoyed it. They were all back (Wednesday). They were cutting up with each other in the locker room talking about it. So there was an excitement around our facility with what our guys were doing. So it turned out to be really a good thing for us.
“There was a lot of discussion nationally about the Royals and the players we have and just to see them and what they did on the big stage, I thought was really, really cool. And they all had their moments.”
Pitcher Luinder Avila didn’t allow a run in 4 1/3 innings over two games for Venezuela. Fellow Royals Michael Wacha (Team USA) and Seth Lugo (Puerto Rico) also pitched in the tournament. And KC closer Carlos Estévez threw a scoreless inning for the Dominican Republic.
There’s more: Royals minor-leaguer Oscar Rayo didn’t allow a run in two outings for Nicaragua, catcher Omar Hernández batted .083 for Cuba and Eric Cerantola pitched two scoreless outings for Canada.
Another Canadian also impressed Picollo.
“One of the, I’ll say, lesser-known guys to our fans,” Picollo said, “but Abraham Toro, when you look up the final stats, it was Maikel No. 1 and everything, and Toro was a close second. He quietly had an excellent tournament for Canada. Our fans just don’t know him, and he’ll be in Triple-A for us. So it was great. It was on an international stage.”
Toro, an infielder who signed a minor-league deal with the Royals shortly before Christmas, tied for the second-most hits (eight) in the tournament. Only Garcia had more, with 10. Toro also tied for third with three triples and was one of just six players to hit a triple during the WBC. He finished with five RBIs in five games.
The Yankees’ Aaron Judge also had five RBIs.
All of this made for some good tournament-viewing for Picollo.
“Vinnie is a celebrity in Italy right now, everybody in Venezuela knew about Salvy, but now they all know about Maikel, so it was really cool,” Picollo said. “And then when you throw in just the political environment with Venezuela right now, it clearly meant a lot to those players and that country to win that tournament. So that was a really cool thing to see.“
This story was originally published March 20, 2026 at 11:33 AM.
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