Team USA will face off against Canada in the World Baseball Classic quarterfinal, but there was a chance that they wouldn't have made it to that point if Italy had lost to Mexico. Before that, manager Mark DeRosa caught a lot of criticism when he said that they had already punched their ticket to the quarterfinals before facing Italy.
Team USA ended up losing to Italy, and they lost control of their fate from there. DeRosa came out later and said that it was an overly confident statement that he made, and that he knew that they hadn't punched their ticket prior to Italy.
With that being the topic of discussion surrounding the WBC, many are interested in knowing if it's become a distraction for the team. Ken Rosenthal on The Athletic says it hasn't.
“I would not say it has been a distraction for the players,” Rosenthal said on Foul Territory TV. “I wouldn't say that some of them weren't aware of it; they're definitely not hanging on social media every day and looking at it like ‘Wow, look what's going on.' That's not kind of how they roll for the most part. They know what needs to be done here.”
“Has it been a distraction for DeRosa and the staff? Yes, I would say that it has occupied some of their time.”
"Has it been a distraction for DeRosa and his staff? Yes, I would say that it has occupied some of their time."@Ken_Rosenthal says the Mark DeRosa misunderstanding hasn't been a distraction for Team USA players: "They know what needs to be done here." pic.twitter.com/2px1H7DfSy
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) March 13, 2026
It's good news that it's not bothering the players, since they have to go out and play. In the end, as long as they win, everybody will forget about DeRosa's comments, and they have a good chance of advancing if they play how they're supposed to.
