{"id":483639,"date":"2025-12-18T20:22:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T20:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/483639\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T20:22:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T20:22:17","slug":"david-bednar-joins-aaron-judge-on-team-usa-for-2026-wbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/483639\/","title":{"rendered":"David Bednar joins Aaron Judge on Team USA for 2026 WBC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Aaron Judge<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/12\/09\/sports\/more-yankees-could-follow-aaron-judges-world-baseball-classic-lead\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> has pinstriped company<\/a> on Team USA.<\/p>\n<p>David Bednar will once again be in the bullpen for Team USA in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, USA Baseball announced Thursday, becoming the latest addition to what is turning into a stacked roster with <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/04\/14\/sports\/aaron-judge-named-team-usa-captain-for-2026-world-baseball-classic\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Judge as its captain.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bednar, then a Pirate, pitched in the back end of the bullpen for USA in 2023 when it fell short to Japan in the championship game.<\/p>\n<p>Now as a Yankee, he will return to a relief corps that currently includes Mason Miller, Garrett Whitlock, Griffin Jax and Garrett Cleavinger.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.54216867;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37964674\" width=\"910\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-york-yankees-pitcher-david-113033049.jpg\" alt=\"New York Yankees pitcher David Bednar throws a pitch during the 8th inning.\" class=\"wp-image-37964674\"  \/>David Bednar also appeared on the 2023 USA team. JASON SZENES FOR NY POST<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis personality\u2019s infectious,\u201d USA manager Mark DeRosa said last week at the winter meetings, when Bednar\u2019s commitment was not yet official.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was one of my favorites. So yeah, I would hope he\u2019s back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So far, Judge and Bednar are the only Yankees who have officially committed to play in the WBC, which begins March 5 and will take them away from spring training.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.42024965;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37964703\" width=\"838\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/new-york-yankees-right-fielder-113042618.jpg\" alt=\"New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge reacts as he rounds the base on his three-run homer.\" class=\"wp-image-37964703\"  \/>Aaron Judge is the Team USA captain. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n<p>But others are being courted by their respective countries, including Jazz Chisholm Jr. (Great Britain), Fernando Cruz (Puerto Rico), Camilo Doval (Dominican Republic), Austin Wells (Dominican Republic) and Jos\u00e9 Caballero (Panama).<\/p>\n<p>Special adviser Andy Pettitte will serve as the pitching coach for the USA, while bench coach Brad Ausmus is set to manage Team Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Bednar\u2019s participation came on the same day as USA Baseball announced that back-to-back AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal would serve as a co-ace to Paul Skenes, further bolstering a formidable rotation.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>After arriving in The Bronx at the trade deadline this summer, Bednar took over the closer\u2019s job and posted a 2.19 ERA with 10 saves and 35 strikeouts in 24 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n<p>He was even better in the playoffs, giving up one earned run across six innings with two saves and nine strikeouts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou look at his second half and what he was able to do, you\u2019re talking about a quality back-end reliever,\u201d USA general manager Michael Hill said at the winter meetings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomeone with experience finishing games and leverage moments.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Judge has pinstriped company on Team USA. David Bednar will once again be in the bullpen for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[106,5,1100,4,1690,62,2548,2547,185,4820,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-483639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-yankees","8":"tag-aaron-judge","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-david-bednar","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-yankees","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkyankees","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-world-baseball-classic","18":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115742438127683846","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}