Standout performers at the WBC: Luis Arraez, Ozzie Albies, Junior Caminero among those making a statement in pool play

The World Baseball Classic is in full swing, and this past weekend of pool play provided memorable highlights and emotional vignettes that captured what international baseball is all about. The stakes will grow only higher as teams get eliminated and the knockout stage begins, but the first few days of competition have given us a ton to chew on.

Here’s a sampling of the biggest swings from the WBC so far and what they mean for the main characters involved, both for the remainder of this tournament and for the upcoming MLB season.

MLB stars lead the way for Team Japan

It took just three games for Samurai Japan to qualify for the knockout stage, earning wins against Chinese Taipei, Korea and Australia to clinch a spot in the quarterfinals on its quest for a fourth WBC title. There are 13 players tournament-wide who have hit multiple home runs in pool play, and three of them are atop Japan’s lineup: Shohei Ohtani, Seiya Suzuki and Masataka Yoshida, all with two apiece.

After dominating Chinese Taipei without much trouble, the next two contests were more challenging than many anticipated for Japan, but its biggest stars delivered the big swings when the team needed them — none bigger than Yoshida’s two-run, go-ahead blast in the bottom of the seventh against Australia:

A huge contributor to Japan’s WBC title run three years ago, Yoshida’s major-league career has unfolded in bizarre fashion since then due to myriad factors, including his uneven performance, the volatile Red Sox roster construction and injuries. But for Japan, Yoshida is an unquestioned superstar, dating to his NPB days and especially on the international stage. A shoulder injury limited his availability and impact for much of last season, but he was sneaky stellar in September and during Boston’s brief postseason appearance.

While his defensive limitations and bloated contract make him a tough fit on Boston’s roster, his bat still belongs at the highest level in some form, and it’ll be fascinating to see how his career progresses from here — as part of Japan’s WBC title defense efforts and then back in the majors.

Luis Arraez multi-homer WBC game AGAIN?!

Speaking of that small group of players with multiple homers, how about Luis Arraez? The newest San Francisco Giants infielder is showing out on the international stage again, going yard twice Saturday in Venezuela’s 11-3 win over Israel.

Known more for his batting average than his power, Arraez is the first player ever with multiple multi-homer games in the WBC. (His first surprise slugging surge came in 2023, when he homered twice in Venezuela’s heartbreaking loss to Team USA in the quarterfinals.) That he is the first to achieve this homer-related feat is all the more remarkable considering he has just one multi-homer game in his entire major-league career. That was Sept. 15, 2023, as a member of the Miami Marlins and also at loanDepot Park, the site of his WBC heroics.

Arraez joined his national team this spring after a fascinating trip through free agency that culminated in a one-year, $12 million deal with San Francisco, indicating industry-wide skepticism that the three-time batting champion has a broad enough skill set to warrant a more lucrative, multi-year contract.

Now he’ll have the opportunity to reestablish his value in the new-look Giants lineup, with the bat and also with the glove as the expected every-day second baseman. Before that, Arraez promises to remain a central figure in Venezuela’s pursuit of its first WBC title, notably batting third in a lineup stacked with star power.

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Darell Hernaiz walks it off for Puerto Rico

One of the biggest storylines entering this year’s Classic was the disappointment over Francisco Lindor and Carlos Correa being unable to participate due to insurance issues, a particular letdown with Puerto Rico serving as the host for Pool A play. With that discouraging cloud looming over the island, it was fantastic to see the passionate home crowd in San Juan treated to two terrific performances from Puerto Rico out of the gate, even without two of its biggest stars.

First came a 5-0 shutout of Colombia that began with four scoreless innings from Seth Lugo and ended with closer Edwin Díaz entering to his iconic trumpets and slamming the door with three strikeouts. Then on Saturday, a nail-biter against Panama ended with a Darell Hernaiz walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the 10th:

Hernaiz was a good candidate to be on Puerto Rico’s roster regardless of Lindor’s and Correa’s absences. But the fact that the player starting at shortstop only because Lindor couldn’t play was the one to deliver such a big swing was a refreshing bit of positive baseball karma for a Puerto Rican team that certainly deserves it. And for Hernaiz, a 24-year-old still working to establish himself in the majors with the A’s, a swing like that could instill a healthy dose of confidence entering the regular season — once his run as a surprisingly important cog in Puerto Rico’s lineup comes to an end.

Ozzie Albies makes history

Remarkably, Hernaiz’s walk-off blast wasn’t even the first one of the day, as earlier Saturday, Ozzie Albies delivered the first walk-off home run in WBC history to help the Netherlands take down Nicaragua in a captivatingly close contest.

Albies’ humongous hack on a first-pitch fastball from Nicaragua reliever Angel Obando vaulted the Netherlands from a 3-1 deficit to a 4-3 triumph with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, marking an emotional victory for that Dutch squad and a devastating defeat for a Nicaragua team seeking its first WBC win. The Netherlands’ chances of advancing out of Pool D remain slim, but Albies’ big moment was an encouraging sign for him entering a pivotal 2026 with the Braves, for both player and club.

Atlanta has already endured a rough spring training, with elbow injuries to Spencer Schwellenbach and Hurston Waldrep followed by a 162-game PED suspension for Jurickson Profar (which also rendered him unavailable for the Netherlands, a double-whammy for Albies as a teammate). Albies could be a key ingredient to getting Atlanta back on track in 2026, and he has plenty to prove coming off a poor campaign in which he posted a career-worst 87 wRC+.

The Braves still picked up his $7 million option for this season, but he’ll need to bounce back if the Atlanta lineup is going to be anywhere near as formidable as it hopes to be. As the longest-tenured player on the roster, Albies is at a crossroads in his career, and how he performs this season will likely determine whether his time in Atlanta finally nears its end or he remains a main character for the Braves moving forward.

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Junior Caminero is way more than just a water boy

It was last June when Rays slugger Junior Caminero sat down with journalist Yancen Pujols and announced his plea to manager Albert Pujols to be included on the Dominican Republic roster for the World Baseball Classic, even if just as the water boy. Caminero recognized then that several more accomplished third basemen were ahead of him on the Dominican depth chart, but he was passionate about finding a way to be included in the tournament.

Combine a gigantic second half with the Rays with the absence of guys such as José Ramírez and Rafael Devers on the Dominican roster, and Caminero now finds himself in the heart of Team D.R.’s laughably loaded lineup, doing a whole lot more than fetching water for his more famous teammates. The 22-year-old has already torched two jaw-dropping homers: a go-ahead, two-run blast to center field against Nicaragua and a laser-beam, three-run shot to left field against the Netherlands that put the game out of reach.

It’s possible that Caminero’s performance in this tournament will be viewed as his coming out party as a superstar in his own right, a fitting encore to his runner-up Home Run Derby performance last summer. His electric, right-handed swing should be a staple in our game for years, and how he continues to grow as a hitter will be fascinating to watch. Caminero’s biggest test this season will be the transition back to the less-hitter-friendly Tropicana Field, as his production last year was markedly better at George M. Steinbrenner Field (.954 OPS) than on the road (.743 OPS). It’d be foolish to doubt a player of Caminero’s caliber, but it’s something to monitor.

KBO stars step up for Korea

Joining Japan in advancing from Pool C is Korea, whose dramatic victory over Australia on Monday ensured it would hold the tiebreaker in a three-way knot with Australia and Chinese Taipei. Breaking through to the final eight was an enormous achievement for Korea, which finished third and runner-up in the first two editions of the WBC (2006 and 2009) but failed to advance out of the group stage in the three tournaments since. Korea’s roster is captained by San Francisco Giants outfielder Jung-Hoo Lee and bolstered by American-born big leaguers with Korean heritage such as Jahmai Jones, Shay Whitcomb and Dane Dunning.

In this tournament, Lee has looked terrific, both at the plate and in right field, where he is preparing to play after primarily manning center for the Giants the past two seasons. But the real breakout stars of pool play were two still playing in KBO: 22-year-old third baseman Do Yeong Kim and 25-year-old first baseman Bo Gyeong Moon. Kim was the 2024 KBO MVP with the Kia Tigers but dealt with injuries that limited him to just 30 games in 2025. He’s clearly healthy now, delivering several impressive swings at some key moments in pool play that showcased both his talent and his poise:

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