Who insider thinks is current World Baseball Classic ‘favorite,’ and it’s not Team USA

On Wednesday, the Team USA squad punched its ticket to the quarterfinal round of the ongoing World Baseball Classic when Team Italy beat Team Mexico, helping the American team overcome their rough loss to Italy the day before. Meanwhile, the Dominican Republic hit four home runs on Wednesday and staved off a late comeback attempt from Venezuela in order to advance themselves.

Recently, MLB insider Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic broke down why he believes that it is the Dominican Republic, and not Team USA, who should be viewed as the favorites moving forward in the tournament.

“I actually believe they are the favorite in this tournament. They’re riding, obviously, a wave of emotion. The highlights from Miami in pool play were astounding. One after another, the home runs, the celebrations, the passion that they play with,” said Rosenthal, per Foul Territory on X, formerly Twitter. “Now, is their pitching going to be good enough to get through this tournament? We’re going to find out. But, at the same time, they are a team that I expect will beat Korea, and I expect would give the US a big problem in the semifinal, though it would be (Paul) Skenes starting for the US.

Indeed, Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates would be on the mound for the American squad if the two teams were to match up. In order to get to that point, as Rosenthal noted, the Dominican Republic will have to defeat South Korea, while Team USA will need to beat Team Canada.

The WBC is slated to resume action on Thursday.

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