WBC Report Card
Eight Padres. Four countries. One tournament. Here's how they did.
Opening Day is nine days away. The WBC is over. Venezuela is the champion. And if you watched any of this tournament, you saw some Padres baseball that should have you genuinely fired up for what’s coming.
Eleven Padres were named to WBC rosters when the tournament began. Not all of them made it to Miami. Some underwhelmed. A few exceeded every expectation. And at least one put himself in conversations that won’t end until October.
Let’s go through them.
Fernando Tatis Jr. — Dominican Republic Grade: A
Through pool play and the quarterfinal, Tatis was the best Padre on any roster in this tournament and one of the best players in the entire field. Eight hits in 20 at-bats, two home runs, eleven RBI, a 1.238 OPS. The grand slam off Israel in the second inning of pool play was the first in Dominican Republic WBC history, a fact that somehow felt right, that the first one ever would come off Tatis’s bat, in a moment like that, with that stadium losing its mind.
The swing looked different. Not just the results, the mechanics. More compact on the load, quieter hands, trusting his hips to do the work. Everything I wrote about in the MVP piece was showing up in real time against live pitching from international rosters.
The semifinal against the USA was painful to watch. Tatis went 1-for-4, got thrown out at third by Aaron Judge trying to take an extra base, classic Tatis, never stops running, sometimes pays for it, and watched the Dominican Republic’s tournament end on a full-count slider that Geraldo Perdomo thought was low. The Fox broadcast crew agreed it was low. ABS would have walked Perdomo and put Tatis up with runners on. That’s baseball, and the WBC doesn’t have robot umps yet. Starting in nine days, the Padres will.
None of that changes what Tatis showed. Eleven RBI in a tournament where every lineup is throwing their best arms at you is not a fluke. The stance is working. The approach is working. If those mechanics hold across a 162-game season, the MVP conversation I started is going to look prescient by August.
Manny Machado — Dominican Republic Grade: A-
Machado’s WBC wasn’t about the bat. It was about that glove at the hot corner, and specifically about two plays in the DR’s first game of pool play that broke the internet.
Back-to-back back hand stops. Same inning. Both throws on target. The second one came so fast after the first that people genuinely thought they were watching a replay. They were not. Machado just does that.
The bat was solid without being spectacular but Machado’s best WBC baseball was the kind that doesn’t show up in the slash line. He was a presence, a leader, the veteran anchor on a roster full of stars that could have gotten chaotic without someone steadying the room. Albert Pujols had plenty of talent to work with. Machado helped make it coachable.
He goes 1-for-4 in the semifinal loss, Bobby Witt Jr. makes a spectacular play to rob him in the sixth, and that’s that. The DR is done. Machado and Tatis are on a plane back to Peoria. Nine days until Opening Day, and both of them look ready.
Mason Miller — Team USA Grade: A
Miller was the best reliever in this tournament. Four innings pitched, zero hits allowed, ten strikeouts. Two saves. Thirty-five pitches clocked at 100 mph or above. He was unhittable every time DeRosa gave him the ball, and the way he closed out the Dominican Republic in the semifinal, getting Geraldo Perdomo on a full-count slider with Tatis on deck, runners on base, the whole tournament on the line, was the kind of moment that defines a closer.
The championship game is where the Miller story gets interesting. He was available for the final, DeRosa confirmed it pregame, but only in a save situation. Venezuela went up 2-0 and held it most of the night. USA never had a lead to protect. Bryce Harper tied it with a two-run shot in the eighth, and for one inning it looked like Miller might get his moment. Then Eugenio Suárez doubled home the go-ahead run in the ninth off Garrett Whitlock, Venezuela closer Daniel Palencia went 1-2-3 in the bottom half, and it was over. Miller watched the last out from the dugout. Venezuela won 3-2. First championship in their history.
It’s a strange final note for a tournament where Miller was otherwise dominant. He didn’t fail, he never got the chance to succeed. USA’s offense went 3-for-30 against a Venezuela pitching staff that had no business being that good for that long. That’s not on Miller.
What he showed over two-plus weeks is what matters for Padres fans. He’s not just a high-leverage reliever. He’s an event. Every opposing manager in the NL West now has fresh footage of what it looks like to have him warming up in the ninth inning. Good luck with that.
Wandy Peralta — Dominican Republic Grade: B
Peralta’s tournament was quiet by design. He’s a middle reliever on a staff with Camilo Doval, Carlos Estévez, and Seranthony Domínguez ahead of him in high-leverage spots. He pitched one scoreless inning in the Nicaragua game as part of a DR bullpen that combined for 7⅔ scoreless frames in that win, then added another scoreless inning against Israel. Two innings pitched, zero runs allowed, did exactly what you ask a middle reliever to do.
For a guy on a one-year deal trying to build value heading into free agency, the WBC wasn’t going to make or break anything. He didn’t embarrass himself, and that’s really all you can ask from a reliever in a tournament built around the best hitters on the planet. He’s back in Peoria now. His job is to be Wandy Peralta, a reliable lefty who eats innings and keeps the ball in the yard. He’s done that for two years with the Padres and there’s no reason to expect that changes.
Xander Bogaerts — Netherlands Grade: B+
Bogaerts was one of the better individual performers for a Netherlands team that ran into the Dominican Republic in pool play and couldn’t survive it. He had three hits in the tournament, played solid defense, and looked like a guy who’s fully healthy and engaged heading into a year where we need him to step up.
The Netherlands went out in pool play, which wasn’t a surprise given their bracket, but Bogaerts held up his end. He’s heading back to Peoria with legitimate momentum, after his slow first half in 2025 and the strong finish down the stretch, I want to see him carry that into April. The WBC gave me cautious optimism.
Alek Jacob — Italy Grade: B+
This is the Padres WBC story that didn’t get nearly enough attention in San Diego.
Jacob made three appearances for Italy, finishing with 2⅓ innings pitched and 2 earned runs allowed. His best moment came in pool play against Puerto Rico, 1.1 shutout innings, three strikeouts, a win. He also pitched in the pool play upset of Team USA, entering in relief late with the lead intact. The two earned runs came across those appearances, but the context of who he was pitching against matters. He did not pitch in the semifinal.
Italy went 5-0 heading into that Venezuela semifinal, the only undefeated team left in the bracket. They upset Team USA in pool play. They knocked out Puerto Rico in the quarterfinals. They were, genuinely, the story of this WBC. Italy fell 4-2 to Venezuela on Monday night and their run was over, but reaching the last four of the World Baseball Classic is something no Italian team had ever done. Jacob was part of history.
For a guy fighting for a bullpen spot on the Opening Day roster, this was a net positive. The velocity uptick (88 mph fastball, up 3 mph from last year), the funky delivery, the high-leverage international reps, it all adds up. Watch this roster spot closely over the final nine days of spring.
Ron Marinaccio — Italy Grade: A-
Marinaccio’s final line: 2⅓ innings pitched, 1 earned run, across three appearances. And his last outing was his best, a 1-2-3 ninth inning against Venezuela in the semifinal, keeping Italy in a 2-1 game and giving his team a chance in the late innings.
That’s not nothing. Sitting across the diamond from Ronald Acuña Jr., Luis Arraez, and Eugenio Suárez with a one-run deficit and the WBC semifinal on the line, and going 1-2-3, that’s a moment. It wasn’t enough, Venezuela scored two in the top of that inning to go up 4-1, but Marinaccio threw his inning and held his ground.
He’s spent most of the last two years bouncing between Triple-A and the big leagues. Being part of Italy’s historic semifinal run, and finishing it with that kind of outing, is the kind of thing that changes how an organization sees a player. He heads back to Peoria with a real case.
A Note on the Others
Carter Loewen (Canada) was unable to obtain insurance and never made the tournament. Yuki Matsui withdrew before pool play began with a groin strain that still has his Opening Day status in question. Josh Mallitz, Miguel Cienfuegos, and Victor Lizarraga are minor leaguers who weren’t on tournament rosters.
The Takeaway
Seven Padres actually played in this tournament. The headline is Tatis’s 1.238 OPS and Miller’s tournament-long dominance. But the actual story is broader than that.
Machado looked like himself. Bogaerts looks healthy. Jacob and Marinaccio were part of Italy’s best-ever WBC run and both made real cases for Opening Day jobs. And Miller, who was already one of the best relievers in the sport before any of this started, spent two weeks reminding every lineup in baseball that he’s not just a closer. He’s an event.
Venezuela won the championship. Good for them. That country needed something to celebrate, and a 3-2 walk-off title over the best team on paper in the tournament was about as dramatic as it gets. But from a Padres lens, the story of this WBC is a roster that went into it with questions and came out of it with answers.
Opening Day is March 26. Nine days. Let’s go.
Who was your Padres WBC MVP? Let me know in the comments.
— The Friar Beat