{"id":425016,"date":"2026-01-22T03:56:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T03:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/425016\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T03:56:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T03:56:07","slug":"phillies-aaron-nola-to-pitch-for-italy-at-2026-wbc-which-mlb-players-are-on-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/425016\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies&#8217; Aaron Nola to Pitch for Italy at 2026 WBC, Which MLB Players Are on Roster?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Philadelphia Phillies manager Rob Thomson <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ArcainiLuke\/status\/2014137033917186288\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">announced Wednesday<\/a> that starting pitcher Aaron Nola will be suiting up for Italy at the 2026 World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">He is now the second confirmed MLB player to join Team Italy, per <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/mlb-players-in-the-2026-world-baseball-classic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">MLB.com<\/a>, alongside Kansas City Royals first baseman Vincent Pasquantino.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Italy reached the quarterfinals of the 2023 World Baseball Classic before being eliminated by the eventual champions, Japan, in a 9-3 blowout. It was nonetheless a good showing for Italy, which had only escaped the first round in one previous WBC (Round 2, 2013). <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Nola, 32, will give Italy a top-of-the-rotation option, though the former All-Star had a rough 2025. Injuries limited him to just 17 starts and he struggled when healthy, finishing 5-10 with a 6.01 ERA, 1.34 WHIP and 97 strikeouts in 94.1 innings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">While his final two appearances of the season were strong efforts\u2014he gave up just two hits and a run in eight innings, with nine strikeouts, in his final start of the regular season against the Minnesota Twins; and two innings of scoreless ball against the Los Angeles Dodgers in his lone playoff appearance\u2014it was an otherwise forgettable campaign for Nola. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Those struggles were somewhat offset by Zach Wheeler&#8217;s dominance in the first half of the season, Cristopher S\u00e1nchez&#8217;s Cy Young-esque campaign and Jes\u00fas Luzardo&#8217;s breakout effort. But the 2026 Phillies need Nola to return to form, especially after losing Ranger Su\u00e1rez in free agency and given the ongoing uncertainty over Wheeler&#8217;s future after thoracic outlet syndrome ended his 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">A strong showing at the WBC would be a positive indicator that a bounce-back season is loading. He&#8217;s one of 10 Phillies reportedly playing in the tournament, <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/975thefanatic.com\/2025\/12\/31\/every-phillies-player-on-a-world-baseball-classic-roster\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">joining<\/a> Bryce Harper (WBC), Kyle Schwarber (USA), Brad Keller (USA), Garrett Stubbs (Israel), Taijuan Walker (Mexico), Alan Rangel (Mexico), Jos\u00e9 Alvarado (Venezuela), Edmundo Sosa (Panama) and Johan Rojas (Dominican Republic).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Phillies manager Rob Thomson announced Wednesday that starting pitcher Aaron Nola will be suiting up for Italy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-425016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}