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Yankees star won’t play in World Baseball Classic
by Larry Brown
One of the stars of the New York Yankees will not be participating in the World Baseball Classic.
Pitcher Max Fried was invited by Team USA manager Mark DeRosa to participate in the WBC but declined, DeRosa said Tuesday, according to YES Network’s Jack Curry.
Fried signed with the Yankees last offseason and put together a stellar first season with the AL East team. He went 19-5 with a 2.86 ERA and 1.101 WHIP over 195.1 innings. Fried’s 19 wins led MLB. He was an All-Star for the third time in his career, he finished fourth in AL Cy Young Award voting, and he won his fourth Gold Glove award.
Though Fried turned down the chance to pitch in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, there are other top American pitchers who will be on the team. Paul Skenes, Matthew Boyd and Garrett Whitlock will help the team. DeRosa will also be pursuing the likes of Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet to pitch.
On Tuesday, we also learned that Kyle Schwarber will play for Team USA again. He played for the team in 2017 and 2023. Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has also signed on to be a captain for the US team.
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