Daniel Palencia Reveals Key to His Success, Shuts Down Italy to Advance to WBC Final

After defeating the reigning champions, Team Japan, in the World Baseball Classic semifinals on Saturday, Venezuela had an opportunity to reach its first WBC Title match in team history.

And, at the forefront of their success has been Chicago Cubs reliever Daniel Palencia.

Palencia broke out on the scene as a top-tier reliever with Chicago in 2025 after mediocre performances in 2023 and 2024.

Last season for the Cubs, Palencia took a huge step, posting a 2.91 ERA in 54 appearances with 61 strikeouts and 22 saves in 52 2/3 innings of work.

Entering the season, Palencia had an ERA of 5.02 combined during his first two years.

Ahead of Monday's semifinal matchup against Italy, Palencia spoke with MLB Network about his newfound success. When asked about what the biggest reason was for his third-year jump, Palencia credited the location of his fastball, saying: "Finding a way to put the fastball wherever I want."

Team Venezuela's Daniel Palencia on what has allowed him to take the next step as a reliever:

"Finding a way to put the fastball wherever I want."@CapitalOne | @Cubs | #WorldBaseballClassic pic.twitter.com/DYCvVBgQRp
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) March 16, 2026

So far in the preseason, Palencia has certainly done that.

Dominating for his country on the biggest stage

In two games for Venezuela during Group Play, Palencia pitched two shutout innings, allowing zero hits and recording three strikeouts.

In the quarterfinals against Japan, Palencia continued his impressive form, sealing the game with a shutout ninth inning, as Venezuela earned an 8-5 win. Palencia earned the save, retiring three Japanese batters in order, including Shohei Ohtani, who popped out to shortstop to end the game.

In the semifinals on Monday against Italy, it was more of the same. Palencia came on for the ninth inning with Venezuela leading by a score of 4-2. He earned another save, facing the minimum of three batters.

Palencia caused Cleveland Guardians infielder Brayan Rocchio to fly out before recording back-to-back strikeouts to end the game.

Palencia's Chicago teammate, Cade Horton, commented on his performance throughout this year's WBC saying: "I'm just super happy for Danny. He's just another great guy, great teammate, works hard. To see him be able to go out and close games for his country, that's super cool and such a high honor."

Now, Palencia and the rest of his Venezuelan teammates are on to the finals.

Team Venezuela — Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

There, Palencia may have to face off against two of his current teammates, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman.

Although Team USA manager Mark DeRose benched Bregman in the semifinals, with a .333 career average (9-for-27) against Eduardo Rodriguez, all signs point to Bregman entering the lineup once again to combat the Venezuelan left-hander.