12 A's Will be Representing Their Countries in World Baseball Classic
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With spring training right around the corner, that also means that the World Baseball Classic is roughly a month away, with games set to begin on Wednesday March 4 with Chinese Taipei taking on Australia in Tokyo, Japan. On Friday, March 6, the rest of the teams will be in action.
This year the A's have a whopping 12 players spread across the World Baseball Classic rosters, including five players that are expected to make the Opening Day roster in some fashion.
Here are the 12 players, and the countries they'll be representing. Unfortunately for this year's version, there will be no A's representation on the United States squad, though the case could have been made that AL Rookie of the Year Nick Kurtz should have certainly made the team.
Dominican Republic
Luis Severino is arguably the biggest A's player that will be playing in the WBC, given his contract. Last season in his first year with the Sacramento club, he posted a 4.54 ERA while struggling at home. We have written this winter that Sevvy could be the key to the A's reaching the goals that they are hoping to achieve, while there are also some potential concerns with him pitching in the WBC.
The A's could really use a healthy and motivated Luis Severino in 2026, so hopefully the World Baseball Classic gets the juices flowing for the upcoming year.
Elvis Alvarado is much less established on the larger scale, making his MLB debut last season with the A's, but he finished his rookie season with a 3.19 ERA across 42 1/3 innings of work, striking out 50 batters in that span.
Alvarado could be in the mix to be the A's closer this season if he continues throwing the ball like he was last year.
Puerto Rico
Darell Hernaiz is in the mix to be the A's starting third baseman this spring, and playing in the WBC could hinder that pursuit just a touch since Nolan Arenado is also on the Puerto Rican club, meaning Hernaiz isn't likely to get a lot of time at third in the WBC.
Carlos Cortes also made his MLB debut last summer, batting .309 with a .323 OBP across 94 at-bats, with a lot of that playing time coming as a pinch-hitter. We talked to him about his preparation at the end of last year, and he went into detail about his process. That process should serve him well in this tournament.
Canada
Denzel Clarke is one of the most exciting players in baseball, and this could be an opportunity for him to showcase some of his defensive abilities on a much larger scale. For A's fans, this will also be an opportunity to see how his bat is coming along after making some interesting gains at the plate last season before he went down with a season-ending injury.
Chinese Taipei
Wei-En Lin, 20, is ranked as the A's No. 19 prospect by MLB Pipeline, and climbed the ranks from Stockton to Double-A Midland last season. He figures to be back with the RockHounds this season after just a pair of outings in Midland a year ago. Across all levels he held a 3.72 ERA across 87 innings in his first taste of pro ball. The lefty was signed by the A's in June of 2024.
Tzu-Chen Sha, 22, is the A's No. 29 prospect on Pipeline and finished with a 4.15 ERA splitting 99 2/3 innings between Stockton and Lansing. After striking out 59 batters in 50 innings in A Ball, that rate plummeted in High-A, striking out just 28 in 49 2/3 innings.
Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang, 25, is the A's No. 28 prospect on Pipeline and spent the entire 2025 season in Double-A Midland, posting a 4.08 ERA across 145 2/3 innings. He has tremendous control, walking just 5.7% of the hitters he faced last year, while striking out 23.5%. His season earned him a spot on the A's 40-man roster this winter, meaning a stint in Sacramento could be coming soon.
Colombia
Brayan Buelvas, 23, has hovered towards the back-end of the A's prospect lists in the past, and has spent parts of the last three seasons in Double-A Midland. This past season he ended up batting just .194 with a .271 OBP in 70 games played, adding five home runs. The big knock on him currently is that he struck out 31.9% of the time in 2025.
Mexico
Joey Meneses signed on with the A's on a minor-league deal this winter and he figures to be a depth option for the club in 2026. He didn't make it to the big leagues last season, but he has hit .274 with a .322 OBP across 286 career big league games. That said, his OPS+ has dropped from 164 in 2022 to 100 in 2023 and then 69 in 2024, so we'll see how much he has left in the tank for the A's.
He ended up hitting .265 with a .322 OBP across 110 games in Triple-A with the New York Mets in 2025.
Australia
Max Durrington, 18, signed with the A's out of Australia back in 2024, and he ended up making his pro debut last season split between the Arizona Complex League and A Ball with the Stockton Ports. With Stockton, he ended up batting .225 with a .308 OBP, adding in two home runs and six stolen bases.
He also walked a solid 9.6% and struck out 16.8% of the time. For his age, those are impressive numbers. Between both stops he hit .238 with a .329 OBP and hit four home runs and swiped 12 bags in 89 games.
Panama
James Gonzalez, 25, signed with the A's back in 2019 and is an interesting left-handed prospect for the club. This past season he racked up 17 starts in Double-A Midland, spanning 78 innings of work. In that time he held a 4.27 ERA (3.75 FIP) and struck out a solid 24.4% of the batters he faced. He also held a walk rate of 10.3%.
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Jason has been covering the A’s at various sites for over a decade, and was the original host of the Locked on A’s podcast. He also covers the Stanford Cardinal as they attempt to rebuild numerous programs to prominence.
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