Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia revealed that considered one of his long-time objectives, to pitch for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, by no means materialized, regardless of his expressed curiosity.
Vesia has been the Dodgers’ greatest reduction pitcher to start out the season, among the finest general in MLB.
Since becoming a member of the Dodgers, he has been dependable for supervisor Dave Roberts and utilized in quite a lot of leverage roles.
While his velocity has dropped, Vesia stays efficient with distinctive pitch shapes and an aggressive method that includes throwing strikes.
Vesia, per Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register, mentioned that he expressed to Team USA.
“I’ve been telling them for the last two years, ‘I want to play. I want to play. I want to play,’” Vesia mentioned. “Team USA was always such a cool concept. I was never good enough to even come close, trying out for 10-U (10-and-under teams), 12-U, 15-U, whatever. I just would have loved to have played for Team USA. It just never worked out.”
Vesia rejected a smaller position in Team USA
The southpaw was supplied a reserve position, however he was intent on both committing to a full spot or just strolling away from the chance.
“They just pretty much said I was going to be a backup if anything. That was pretty much it,” he mentioned. “Talking with my dad and with Kay (his wife), I was just, ‘We have too much riding on this season to be 50/50. Either I’m all in or I’m all out.’ We ended up making the decision that I was out.”
Team USA ended up going with Clayton Kershaw, Garrett Cleavinger, and Gabe Speier for his or her left-handed choices.
As for Vesia, he ready as he normally does for the upcoming MLB season to assist the Dodgers obtain their three-peat.
“The way I go about my business from the start of spring training to the first game of the season, having the WBC in the middle would have been a factor and it would have dictated how we went about certain things,” Vesia added.
“With the way I felt coming into spring training and into spring training games and now this first month of the season, I think I made the right decision.”
Vesia has pitched in 10 video games and has a complete of 8.2 innings heading into Thursday’s recreation towards the San Francisco Giants.
He has but to permit a run, has a 0.3 fWAR, and a 1.87 FIP, displaying that he’s as efficient as his gaudy counting statistics point out.
Team USA misplaced the WBC last, and whereas it’s laborious to know the way effectively they might have finished with a dependable arm like Vesia within the combine, his begin to the 2026 season suggests they might have missed out on one.
