{"id":115196,"date":"2026-03-05T20:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T01:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=115196"},"modified":"2026-03-05T20:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T01:37:08","slug":"top-prospects-world-baseball-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/03\/05\/top-prospects-world-baseball-classic\/","title":{"rendered":"Where to Find Top Prospects During the World Baseball Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"
The World Baseball Classic started this week, and some of baseball\u2019s top prospects are participating. In total, 7 of the top 100 prospects are playing in the exhibition. All 7 of the prospects are the lone top 100 prospects on their respective teams.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Where to Find Top Prospects During the World Baseball Classic<\/h2>\n

\u200b<\/span>Owen Caissie – (Team Canada \/ Miami Marlins)<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/div>\n
The newly acquired Owen Caissie is no stranger to the World Baseball Classic. During his debut in the exhibition in 2023, Caissie burst onto the scene, homering against Great Britain. Caissie will be a huge cog in Canada\u2019s lineup across the tournament. He\u2019s the highest-drafted Canadian ever drafted and looks to prove why. This spring, he\u2019s just 1\/9 with 6 strikeouts in four games for the Marlins. He\u2019ll look to heat the bat up in the tournament and put himself on the right path to Opening Day.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u200b<\/span><\/div>\n

Travis Bazzana – (Team Australia \/ Cleveland Guardians)<\/span><\/h3>\n
The World Baseball Classic will hopefully be the first of many debuts this season for Travis Bazzana. Bazzana is the highest-ranked primary second baseman on the Top 100 Prospects list. This is due to his great bat-to-ball skills and innate hitting ability. The former number one overall pick will be the most skilled player on his team. He even showed this talent by homering in his first game of pool play. So far this spring, Bazzana is competing for the Opening Day roster by hitting .250 in 3 games with one walk and two strikeouts.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u200b<\/span><\/div>\n

Michael Arroyo (Team Colombia \/ Seattle Mariners)<\/span><\/h3>\n
Michael Arroyo joins a young Colombian infield and will likely play his main position, second base. At the plate, the past two seasons, he has shown why he was a top international free agent signing, hitting 40 home runs and stealing 30 bases. He kept his bat hot this spring, hitting .429 with a 1.779 OPS in Arizona. If he excels in the World Baseball Classic and continues his strong spring, he could start the season in Triple-A Tacoma.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u200b<\/span><\/div>\n

Nolan McLean (Team USA – New York Mets)<\/span><\/h3>\n
It looks like the 2026 NL Rookie of the Year race is running through New York City for Nolan McLean, but not with a stop first in the World Baseball Classic. The righty was dominant in his debut last year down the stretch for the Mets. In 8 starts, he pitched to a 2.06 ERA and 5 wins. The former two-way star imposes his will on the mound thanks to two plus-plus off-speed offerings. In his only offering this spring, the Mets\u2019 pitching prospect pitched a scoreless 4 innings with 6 strikeouts. While McLean may struggle to get starts for the star-studded USA team, look for him to make an impact potentially in relief.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u200b<\/span><\/div>\n

Harry Ford – (Great Britain – Washington Nationals)<\/span><\/h3>\n
The Seattle Mariners almost had two prospects participating in the World Baseball Classic had they not traded Harry Ford. Ford will look to man one half of Great Britain\u2019s battery this spring. The catcher is coming off a 2025 season that saw him make his MLB debut and hit for the most power during his minor league career. Previously blocked by a platinum glove winner in Seattle, Ford\u2019s change of scenery should allow him to see plenty of time behind the dish, including during this World Baseball Classic. In 5 games this spring, he\u2019s batting just .200 and is \u00bd on stolen bases, not nearly as good as his famous pace run. <\/span><\/div>\n
\u200b<\/span><\/div>\n

Leonardo Bernal (Team Panama – St. Louis Cardinals)<\/span><\/h3>\n
Yadier Molina is not the only Cardinals\u2019 catcher participating in the World Baseball Classic. Leonardo Bernal is the 98th-ranked prospect in all of baseball and should be on every Cardinals fan\u2019s radar. Similar to Molina, Bernal is well regarded for his defense, having thrown out 39.1% of potential base stealers in 2025. Another exciting trait for the catcher is his ability to hit from both sides of the plate. Across the 2025 season, Bernal showed promise in Triple-A Spring field, where he hit for more power and significantly cut down on his strikeout rate. During his time in Florida this spring, he\u2019s batting .400 and has walked more than he\u2019s struck out. <\/span><\/div>\n
\u200b<\/span><\/div>\n

Elmer Rodriguez (Team Puerto Rico – New York Yankees)<\/span><\/h3>\n
In 2025, Yankees prospect Elmer Rodriguez nearly doubled his innings from the previous year, pitching to a career-low ERA. Rodriguez also posted career bests in WHIP, opponents\u2019 average, and walk rates. His success led Team Puerto Rico to add him to this year\u2019s World Baseball Classic roster. He\u2019ll have the chance to showcase all four plus pitches in the tournament and potentially boost his case for the Yankees\u2019 Opening Day roster. So far this spring, Rodriguez has made two starts, posting a 1.000 WHIP and striking out five batters across six innings.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Main Photo Credits: David Banks-Imagn Images<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The World Baseball Classic started this week, and some of baseball\u2019s top prospects are participating. In total, 7 of the top 100 prospects are playing in the exhibition. All 7 of the prospects are the lone top 100 prospects on their respective teams. Where to Find Top Prospects During the World Baseball Classic \u200bOwen Caissie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5736,"featured_media":115204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071],"tags":[4948,29287,3753],"class_list":["post-115196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","tag-harry-ford","tag-michael-arroyo","tag-nolan-mclean"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5736"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115196"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115205,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115196\/revisions\/115205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}