For grumps and cranks, the World Baseball Classic is a silly, dangerous distraction from the actual important games, like a mid-April series against the Cincinnati Reds. To the players and fans, though, these games have been a revelation, a reminder of how fun and vital baseball can be. While the World Baseball Classic has been marred by high-profile injuries to Edwin Diaz and Jose Altuve, the passion and high quality of play has still shone through as the field. The talent pool in this year's iteration boasts some of the game's biggest and best players—and if you ask St. Louis Cardinals' All-Star third baseman Nolan Arenado, it should continue to get even better.

“There's no reason stars shouldn't be playing in this,” Arenado told USA Today's Bob Nightengale ahead of the semi-final showdown between the United States and Cuba.

Save for a few notable exceptions (Aaron Judge, Yordan Alvarez, Bryce Harper to name a few), many of the world's best hitters have played in this year's World Baseball Classic. Beyond the duo of star Cardinals Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, the United States roster has Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, Trea Turner, Paul Goldschmidt and J.T. Realmuto, arguably the best players at each of their respective positions; the Dominican Republic (who were disappointingly failed to make it out of the group stage) trotted out a lineup with Juan Soto, Manny Machado, Julio Rodriguez and Rafael Devers.

Still, the event has struggled to attract the best pitchers—Shohei Ohtani, Yu Darvish and Sandy Alcantara are the only true Cy Young contender in the field while the likes of Jacob DeGrom, Justin Verlander, Corbin Burnes, Max Scherzer, and Gerrit Cole stayed at home. Since the timing of the tournament overlaps with spring training, teams and pitchers are reluctant to disrupt their routine in the lead-up to the regular season. Hopefully by 2026, those attitudes will change.