The 10 Biggest MLB Standouts of 2023 World Baseball Classic So Far

The 2023 World Baseball Classic is far from over, but it's not too soon to read into some of the tournament's more eye-catching individual performances.

In this case, the ones that have ramifications for the upcoming Major League Baseball season.

We've lined up 10 players tied to MLB clubs whose WBC performances are not only impressive on their own merits, but also surprising to some extent. They may signal to their employers that various kinds of good things could be in store for the 2023 season.

Let's first hit on some honorable mentions for both established major leaguers and stars from international leagues, and then on the 10 players who made the cut in alphabetical order.

International Standouts

• RF Kensuke Kondoh, Japan
  
• 2B Yadil Mujica, Cuba
  
• RF Kunwoo Park, Korea
• RHP Se Woong Park, Korea
• RHP Roki Sasaki, Japan
• RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Japan

It's the pitchers who own this list, and none more so than Se Woong Park and Roki Sasaki. The former's two appearances in Pool B play yielded six shutout innings with one hit, no walks and nine strikeouts. As for the latter, well, he did this:

Ho-Hum Major League Stars

• SS Tim Anderson, United States
• LF Randy Arozarena, Mexico
• RHP Cristian Javier, Dominican Republic
• RHP Pablo López, Venezuela
• LF Juan Soto, Dominican Republic
• RHP/DH Shohei Ohtani, Japan
• CF Mike Trout, United States

Juan Soto has done Juan Soto things so far, going 4-for-9 with two doubles and a long home run. Likewise, Shohei Ohtani did Shohei Ohtani things to earn MVP honors as Japan went undefeated in Pool B play. He was 6-for-12 with three doubles and a homer at the plate, otherwise pitching in four scoreless innings on the mound.

MLB Team: Boston Red Sox

WBC Stats: 4 G, 18 PA, 2 HR, 0 SB, .438 AVG, .500 OBP, .938 SLG

Taiwan was unable to advance out of Pool A to the quarterfinals despite having home-field advantage at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium, but that was no fault of Yu Chang's.

The 27-year-old infielder did a little bit of everything to win the MVP for Pool A, but what he mainly did was hit the crud out of the ball when Taiwan needed him to. He had a game-tying two-run homer against Italy and a go-ahead grand slam against the Netherlands.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, must be feeling pretty good about having signed Chang just as spring training was getting underway in February.

Though Chang has yet to make an impression at the major league level—he's posted a 76 OPS+ and 0.4 rWAR in 196 games—he was rated by Baseball America as one of the best prospects in the Cleveland Guardians system annually between 2015 and 2021. He especially seemed like he was going places after he slammed 24 home runs at Double-A back in 2017.

If Chang's latest performance is any indication, he might finally be ready to make good on the hype. And if he is, the middle of the Red Sox's infield might not miss Trevor Story all that much while he's out recovering from elbow surgery.

MLB Team: Minnesota Twins

WBC Stats: 1 G, 1 GS, 5.2 IP, 0 H (0 HR), 10 K, 0 BB, 0.00 ERA

When you spearhead a perfect game in an international baseball tournament, you've earned a place on a list of said tournament's standout performers. It's the law.

The perfect game that José De León started in Puerto Rico's 10-0 win over Israel on Monday won't go into the record books on account of how the contest ended after eight innings. The 30-year-old right-hander nonetheless made a huge statement in retiring all 17 batters he faced, including 10 by way of the K.

Anyone who tracked baseball's best prospects back in the 2010s will know De León's name. He was rated as a top-100 talent in 2016 and 2017, and he even represented Puerto Rico in the WBC in the latter year.

You can thank the injury bug for the righty's subsequent faded into obscurity. He's been hurt for much of the last half-decade or so, with the worst event being Tommy John surgery in 2018.

It's to De León's credit that all this felt like water under the bridge as he was dominating on Monday, particularly by way of a power sinker that touched 94.2 mph. If the Twins can't find space for him on what is admittedly a deep pitching staff, another team may be all too happy to give him a shot.

MLB Team: Houston Astros

WBC Stats: 1 G, 0 GS, 3.0 IP, 0 H (0 HR), 7 K, 2 BB, 0.00 ERA

Anyone who would argue that there's nothing especially newsworthy about Luis Garcia being a good pitcher has a leg to stand on. He has a 114 ERA+ for his career, which isn't even counting his playoff contributions.

As Garcia typically isn't much of a strikeout pitcher, however, it wasn't a normal day at the office for him as he mowed down seven members of the Dominican Republic's vaunted lineup on Saturday.

For anyone scoring at home, Garcia struck out Rafael Devers, Jeremy Peña, Jeimer Candelario, Robinson Canó, Julio Rodríguez, Manny Machado and Teoscar Hernández. Unless you're Pedro Martínez at the 1999 All-Star Game, it's hard to do better than that.

Though the 26-year-old righty got his fastball up to 96.1 mph, it was his cutter and slider that really did damage against the D.R. Of the 17 swings against those two pitches, 11 came up empty.

This will do for a sign that the new windup that Garcia adopted to be in compliance with MLB's new rules is going to work out. And, by extension, that he's ready to do his bit to help the Astros cover for the loss of Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander to free agency.

MLB Team: Kansas City Royals

WBC Stats: 4 G, 18 PA, 2 HR, 1 SB, 375 AVG, .444 OBP, .750 SLG

This is where it's appropriate to shout out Milwaukee Brewers prospect Alex Hall, who hit two home runs in Pool B play to help propel Australia to the quarterfinals.

Yet nobody from Down Under elicited questions of "Wait, who is this guy?" quite like Robbie Glendinning. He hit a huge go-ahead three-run home run against Korea last Wednesday and helped bury China with a two-run blast two days later.

To answer the aforementioned question, the 27-year-old Glendinning is a Perth native who, after flaming out of the Pittsburgh Pirates system in 2019, returned home for a couple of successful seasons in the Australian Baseball League. The Royals came calling and signed Glendinning last February, and he's been hitting pretty consistently since then.

First, by way of an .813 OPS at Double-A in 2022. Then, with an .825 OPS back in Australia for the Melbourne Aces. And before jetting off for the WBC, by going 6-for-7 in four spring training contests with the Royals.

It isn't entirely clear what Glendinning's status on the Royals roster is right now, but their interest should be piqued anyway. With Hunter Dozier holding less than a vise-like grip on the third base gig, another option for the position is precisely what they need.

MLB Team: Washington Nationals

WBC Stats: 3 G, 14 PA, 2 HR, 0 SB, .500 AVG, .500 OBP, .929 SLG

Now for a public service announcement for anyone who hasn't been keeping up with Joey Meneses since the end of the 2022 season: yes, he's still raking.

Team USA can vouch, as they felt Meneses' long-ball wrath not once but twice in an 11-5 upset on Sunday. After taking Nick Martinez deep for a two-run shot in the first, he did one better with a three-run blast off Brady Singer in the fourth.

It's amazing to think that Meneses was essentially off the average baseball fan's radar this time last year. The 2021 season was his ninth in the minor leagues, and the 2022 campaign would see him turn 30 on May 6. These usually aren't the hallmarks of a rising star.

Yet that's what Meneses looked like in the 56 games he played with the Nationals last year. His surface-level results included a 165 OPS+ and 13 home runs, which would smell fluky if not for impressive batted-ball metrics such as average exit velocity of 91.4 mph.

Because of his age, there's a discussion to be had as to whether the Nationals should consider trading Meneses while his stock is high. But until that day comes, he's arguably the top reason for Nats fans to keep tuning in while the club is otherwise rebuilding.

MLB Team: Chicago White Sox

WBC Stats: 4 G, 19 PA, 1 HR, 0 SB, .353 AVG, .421 OBP, .647 SLG

Sans notable natives such as Yordan Álvarez, José Abreu and Randy Arozarena, it was perhaps easier to notice who wasn't on the Cuban team at the outset of the World Baseball Classic.

That they survived Pool A anyway has a lot to do with Yoán Moncada. Not that we're ignoring the excellent defense he also played, but it was mainly his bat that did the talking as he went 6-for-17 with two doubles and one very long home run.

He has, in other words, looked like peak Yoán Moncada. Which is unfortunately the version of him that the White Sox haven't seen in a while.

Back when Moncada was 24 years old in 2019, he looked like a burgeoning MVP candidate amid a season in which he posted a 140 OPS+ and racked up 5.2 rWAR. Then the next three seasons tested his durability in every which way, including via a bad case of COVID-19 in 2020 and hamstring issues last season.

Mercifully, Moncada reported to camp feeling good after altering his offseason workout regimen. That's looking like more than just talk right about now, which is a potentially major development for a White Sox squad that has eyes on the American League Central title.

MLB Team: St. Louis Cardinals

WBC Stats: 4 G, 19 PA, 0 HR, 2 SB, .429 AVG, .579 OBP, .429 SLG

It's hard to argue against the notion that Shohei Ohtani deserved to be the MVP of Pool B. As noted earlier, he did his thing on both sides of the ball. It's hard to compete with that.

Lars Nootbaar tried, though. Goodness, did he try. And not just by going 6-for-14 with four walks at the plate, as he also shined on defense with a great catch against China and a greater-still catch against Korea.

Add in that he also has an awesome celebration going right now, Nootbaar seems to have discovered a solid recipe for how to become a global sensation overnight.

Then again, Cardinals fans might have seen this coming. They had the best view of Nootbaar as his star was rapidly rising in the second half of the 2022 season, wherein he had as many walks as strikeouts (41) while hitting the ball at an average of 91.9 mph. With quality defense in right field to boot, he was as valuable as Trea Turner down the stretch.

That Nootbaar, 25, is now showing himself to be quite the center fielder opens up some intriguing options for the Cardinals for 2023. Say, of a super-outfield with Nootbaar in center, slugging prospect Jordan Walker in right and a Tyler O'Neill-Dylan Carlson platoon in left.

MLB Team: Oakland Athletics

WBC Stats: 3 G, 0 GS, 6.2 IP, 4 H (0 HR), 10 K, 0 BB, 0.00 ERA

As for what else besides Moncada's hot bat led Cuba out of the first round and into the quarterfinals, well, how about a guy who handled 17 percent of their innings yet collected 26 percent of their strikeouts?

That was Miguel Romero, who did it in true yeoman's fashion by appearing in three of Cuba's four games during Pool A play. He set a tone by whiffing Xander Bogaerts and Jonathan Schoop in his first outing against the Netherlands and stuck to it his next two times out.

The 28-year-old Romero has been in the A's system since 2017, yet it would've been hard to say at the end of 2022 that his trajectory was "upward" in shape. In 38 appearances at the Triple-A level, he allowed 72 hits and 48 runs next to 32 strikeouts and 30 walks over 53.1 innings. It was ugly, plain and simple.

Since then, though, it's mostly been goose eggs for Romero. He allowed neither a run nor a walk in five outings in the Puerto Rican League, and the beat is going on thus far in the WBC. We also have a non-statistical observation worth sharing: jeepers, that changeup is filthy.

This is all to say that Romero is possibly on the verge of becoming a guy for the A's, even if it only results in them cashing him in for the sake of their ongoing rebuild.

MLB Team: Baltimore Orioles

WBC Stats: 3 G, 13 PA, 2 HR, 0 SB, .455 AVG, .538 OBP, 1.273 SLG

To clarify something right off the proverbial bat, that 1.273 figure up there is not an OPS. It is indeed a slugging percentage. Anthony Santander's slugging percentage, to be exact.

That's life when four of your five hits have gone for extra bases, and Santander has even been clutch in the process. His two-run double on Tuesday extended Venezuela's lead over Nicaragua, and he had previously hit game-tying and lead-extending home runs against the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, respectively.

Oh, and that was a nifty catch Santander made against the Dominican Republic as well. It was if he was determined to make that 5-1 upset victory happen single-handedly.

Regarding Santander's slugging prowess thus far in the WBC, Orioles fans might say they saw it coming. The 28-year-old did hit 33 home runs in 2022, and in backloaded fashion, at that. Come September, he joined Mike Trout, Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber to hit 10-plus home runs in the season's final month.

If Santander can stay on this track, he can be more than just a supporting character alongside Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and Cedric Mullins in Baltimore's lineup. Other American League East contenders, be warned.

MLB Team: Boston Red Sox

WBC Stats: 4 G, 19 PA, 0 HR, 0 SB, .417 AVG, .526 OBP, .500 SLG

We can debate who Japan's best hitter was in the first round of the WBC, but only one of their guys struck out exactly zero times while going 5-for-12 with a pair of walks.

That guy was Masataki Yoshida, who also tied Ohtani in driving home a team-high eight runs. One of his hits probably should have been an error, to be sure, but Yoshida otherwise put on a master class on getting the bat to the ball and hitting it where they ain't.

For the record, this is the same Masataki Yoshida whose five-year, $90 million deal with the Red Sox was widely panned as an overpay. As one executive told Kiley McDaniel of ESPN: "We thought he was worth less than half of what they paid."

Chaim Bloom, Boston's chief baseball officer, is nonetheless bullish on Yoshida's sheer hitting acumen. And it's not as if he lacks numbers to back it up. All the 29-year-old did in seven years in Nippon Professional Baseball was hit .327 with four seasons of 20-plus home runs.

If the Red Sox are indeed on to something with both Yoshida and Chang, their lineup might have enough support around Rafael Devers, Justin Turner and Triston Casas after all.

Stats courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.