{"id":742780,"date":"2026-07-04T09:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T09:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/742780\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T09:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T09:21:15","slug":"jonathan-aranda-roots-for-mexico-in-the-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/742780\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Aranda roots for Mexico in the World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON \u2013 Even though the 2026 World Cup<\/a> is played during the baseball season, Jonathan Aranda<\/a> has kept close tabs on Mexico\u2019s<\/a> historic run in this summer\u2019s tournament.<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Rays All-Star got comfortable on his couch before tuning in to watch Mexico\u2019s opening game versus South Africa.The Tijuana native enjoyed the full 90 minutes because it was an off-day for Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

The Rays<\/a> first basemen was blessed with another Thursday day off to watch the highly anticipated game between South Korea and Mexico. Aranda had games during Mexico\u2019s games against Czech Republic and Ecuador, but he checked the score once his game was done.<\/p>\n

Aranda is looking forward to Mexico\u2019s Round of 16 match against England on Sunday night. He\u2019ll have a game against the Astros at 2:30 central time. Surely, after the game Aranda will be cheering on his countrymen on the plane ride back to Tampa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a great, close game,\u201d he said. \u201cI wish the entire Mexican soccer team good luck, and I hope that we can win the World Cup this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aranda in WBC<\/p>\n

Aranda has done his part in representing Mexico. The 28-year-old first baseman has donned Mexico\u2019s red, white and green in the previous two World Baseball Classics. The left handed slugger helped Mexico reach the semifinals in 2023. He was Mexico\u2019s leading offensive weapon this past March.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 6-foot left-hander knows what it\u2019s like to sport his country\u2019s colors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just the team,\u201d Aranda told Our Esquina during the World Baseball Classic. \u201cIt\u2019s the whole country. We are playing for our (flag\u2019s) colors, and truly I\u2019m very excited.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

More from Our Esquina<\/p>\n

Tijuana\u2019s Alejandro Kirk, Jonathan Aranda live out childhood dreams<\/a><\/p>\n

Jonathan Aranda benefits from playing time<\/a><\/p>\n

Rays bench coach Rodney Linares checks all boxes<\/a><\/p>\n

Jonathan Aranda isn\u2019t shy about showcasing his Mexican pride. Throughout the baseball you\u2019ll see Aranda wearing something with the Mexican flag. At times it\u2019s a headband, belt or even cleats in Mexico\u2019s green, white and red.<\/p>\n

During the 2025 All-Star game celebration, Aranda and his family walked the red carpet waving a Mexican flag. He wore a white suit with a Mexican flag pin attached to his suit jackets. The men in his family wore green suits, and the women wore green-and-red dresses.<\/p>\n

All-Star Aranda<\/p>\n

Aranda hopes for another opportunity to represent Mexico at the All-Star game. He knows he has the numbers for it as he admitted he is having greater success than he did last year when he became an All-Star for the first time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s on pace to surpass his last year totals in most offensive categories. He needs two more home runs and RBIs to break his career highs. The power surge he\u2019s on isn\u2019t really his game, but Aranda explained his uptick in home runs from just trying to get on base.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mentality has stayed the same from last year, and that is trying to help the team win,\u201d Aranda said. \u201cFortunaly more things have been working compared to last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve produced a little more power. That is something that I am not used too but happy to contribute to the team in a positive way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rays manager Kevin Cash believes his first place team has many All-Star candidates, Aranda included.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ve said between (Junior) Caminero, (Bryan) Baker, Yandy (Diaz), (Drew) Rasmussen, Nick (Martinez), (Jonthan) Aranda, (Shane) McClanahan,\u201d Cash said. \u201cYou just hope they get the right consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Padilla<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Even though the 2026 World Cup is played during the baseball season, Jonathan Aranda has kept…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,307,1211,4,297,2550,68,2551,2549,4820,38306],"class_list":["post-742780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-rays","tag-baseball","tag-jonathan-aranda","tag-mexico","tag-mlb","tag-rays","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabayrays","tag-world-baseball-classic","tag-world-cup"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116860976335178776","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742780","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=742780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}