Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia revealed that one of his long-time goals, to pitch for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, never materialized, despite his expressed interest.
Vesia has been the Dodgers’ best relief pitcher to start the season, one of the best overall in MLB.
Since joining the Dodgers, he has been reliable for manager Dave Roberts and used in a variety of leverage roles.
While his velocity has dropped, Vesia remains effective with unique pitch shapes and an aggressive approach that involves throwing strikes.
Vesia, per Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register, said 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 said. “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.”
The southpaw was offered a reserve role, but he was intent on either committing to a full spot or simply walking away from the opportunity.
“They just pretty much said I was going to be a backup if anything. That was pretty much it,” he said. “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 their left-handed options.
As for Vesia, he prepared as he usually does for the upcoming MLB season to help the Dodgers achieve 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 games and has a total of 8.2 innings heading into Thursday’s game against the San Francisco Giants.
He has yet to allow a run, has a 0.3 fWAR, and a 1.87 FIP, showing that he is as effective as his gaudy counting statistics indicate.
Team USA lost the WBC final, and while it is hard to know how well they could have done with a reliable arm like Vesia in the mix, his start to the 2026 season suggests they may have missed out on one.