PHOENIX -- Team USA's star-studded roster includes both reigning Cy Young Award winners, but it will be the league's foremost workhorse who will take the mound in their World Baseball Classic pool play opener on Friday.
Team USA manager Mark DeRosa announced that San Francisco Giants ace Logan Webb, who has led the National League in innings for three consecutive seasons, will start against Brazil at Daikin Park in Houston. AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal, making his only appearance of the tournament, is scheduled to face Great Britain on Saturday. NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes will start March 9 against Mexico.
New York Mets rookie Nolan McLean is the current choice to start March 10 against Italy, although McLean was absent from Monday afternoon's first full-squad workout at the Giants' Papago Park minor league complex. McLean remained at the Mets' camp in Port St. Lucie, Fla., because he was feeling under the weather.
If the tournament goes the way the Americans hope, then they'll clinch their quarterfinals berth before they take the field against the Italians.
Anyone who surveyed the scene at Papago Park on Monday would have to like USA's chances. Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh smacked batting practice home runs on one field, Skenes hummed fastballs off a bullpen mound, and everywhere you looked, some of the game's greatest players were rubbing elbows in the kind of sun-baked, 91-degree heat that usually doesn't arrive in the Sonoran Desert until April or May.
"Just incredible," Judge said. "It's been a great first day. Get a chance to see these guys out on the field, all in the same clubhouse, man, it's pretty special. There's a lot of great players, a lot of greatness in this room. It's cool to see this kind of jelling on the first day already."
The players got together for a team dinner Sunday night and another one is scheduled. They held a team meeting prior to Monday's workout, and Judge, who was named the team's captain, was cajoled by Skubal into giving a speech to the group.
"Not only can we talk about players," Judge said, "but our coaching staff too. We've got All-Stars, Silver Sluggers, World Series champs, (pitching coach Andy) Pettitte, one of the best postseason pitchers ever. It's just some of the best baseball players that ever played the game in one room, so it was pretty cool to get a chance to address them and talk with them. That's what I kind of started out with: It's just an honor to be here in front of you and be wearing the same uniform as you guys."
How star-studded is this group? The unofficial team photographer is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Ken Griffey Jr. didn't need a credential around his neck to have full run of the place with his DSLR.
"I keep telling him, 'Man, grab a bat. We need you,'" Judge said. "So maybe we'll get him in the cage one of these days."
Skenes is scheduled to start Tuesday's exhibition game against the Giants at Scottsdale Stadium, likely throwing two innings. Left-hander Matthew Boyd is scheduled to throw two innings as well. Relievers Griffin Jax, Gabe Speier, David Bednar and Mason Miller are also scheduled.
The Giants will start young rotation hopeful Blade Tidwell, who might have the nastiest slider in the organization. Bednar's younger brother, Will, is a former Giants first-round pick who is in minor league camp as a non-roster player and is expected to appear as well.
"Heaters away from the Giants," DeRosa said with a laugh. "Nobody gets hit."
Assuming that Team USA advances past pool play, Skenes and Webb have both expressed their intent to make multiple starts. With McLean's illness, Skubal's departure after pool play and Minnesota Twins right-hander Joe Ryan forced to bow out because of a lower back injury, it's a bit uncertain how DeRosa and his coaching staff would plot out the pitching in a potential championship game.
But they'll have a three-time Cy Young Award winner standing by and ready for anything.
The WBC is the final encore for Clayton Kershaw, who announced his retirement last year and contributed during the Los Angeles Dodgers' back-to-back World Series championship run.
"Honestly, I don't know if I would have it in the tank to pitch for a full season again, so I'm really at peace with that decision," Kershaw said. "And this is kind of a weird one-off thing, but you can't really turn down this opportunity. So it wasn't easy to get ready for this with no motivation for a season, but I actually am in a pretty good spot with my arm, and I'll be fine. So if they need me, I'll be ready."
Three years ago, the WBC ended in epic fashion when Shohei Ohtani struck out his Los Angeles Angels teammate, Mike Trout, to clinch the championship for Japan.
Could it come down to Kershaw vs. Ohtani this time?
"I think for our country's sake, it's better if I don't," Kershaw said, smiling. "But look, if it's a pinch and they need me, I'll do it. It's pitch away, hope he flies out to left. Don't throw it in his barrel. I can't imagine if it comes down to USA vs. Japan, with the arms we have, that I'll be needed. But I'll be ready."
DeRosa said adding Kershaw to the roster made sense because they needed depth in case of injury or illness and no active pitcher would want to be idle at a time when they need to build their pitch count for the season.
"When we put our heads together, he's one of the best to ever do it," DeRosa said. "The guys would want to be around him, learn from him, and in case of emergency, he'd be out there and kind of reset us."
Skubal, an impending free agent, will limit his participation to a 50-60 pitch start against Great Britain before returning to the Detroit Tigers in Lakeland, Fla. DeRosa and Judge both expressed their full support of that plan, with the manager saying he was "over the moon" that Skubal agreed to participate at all when he's in line for a record-setting contract.
"This guy's about to make half a billion dollars here in the next offseason," Judge said. "For him to put it all on the line for his country and show up for us, he may be pitching one game, but there's a risk in everything you do. For him to take that risk and be here with us, the boys love it. They were hyped in the clubhouse. It means a lot."
Judge added, with a sly grin, "Maybe we can squeeze another game out of him. I don't know. We'll see."
Team USA was just starting to get acquainted on Monday, but Judge said that they are already bonding over their shared pride of putting on the red, white and blue uniforms.
"It's kind of weird seeing my name on the back of the jersey to start," Judge said,"but I flipped that right over and looked at the front where it said USA."And for me,it just really hit home.I just started thinking of--some of us probably have people who served in military in our family or people we know that serve in military.
"And that was the first thing I thought of:there's individuals out there that have sacrificed everything for this country to allow me to have my wife safe at home and my daughter safe at home,and I get a chance to come out here and play this game."