One of Rochester’s own will represent the Red, White, and Blue in baseball’s premier international tournament- and he’ll be playing alongside a Rochester Red Wings alumnus.
Brighton High School graduate Ernie Clement of the Toronto Blue Jays has joined Team USA for the 2026 World Baseball Classic, it was announced on Tuesday. The selection puts him on a team that already includes stars like Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh, Tarik Skubal, and Paul Skenes. Team USA is managed by former Major Leaguer Mark DeRosa, who, like Clement, was a utilityman known for his defensive flexibility.
Ernie Clement is IN for the World Baseball Classic ?? pic.twitter.com/rax7XDUVfu
— USA Baseball (@USABaseball) January 13, 2026
Clement joins the American squad after a career year and a historic postseason in 2025 that saw him set baseball’s single-postseason hit record, with 30, as part of a Blue Jays run that came just one win short of a World Series title. During the regular season, he finished with career-highs in most offensive categories in his career-high 157 games played, including hits (151), runs scored (83), doubles (35), batting average (.277), on-base-percentage (.313), and on-base-plus-slugging (.711). He also continued to be a defensive star, playing all over the field while leading the American League in Defensive Wins Above Replacement (measuring how much better a player is than a likely replacement player) with 2.9 and in the Range Factor/9 metric (a statistic meant to measure the defensive ability of a player by dividing putouts and assists by the number of innings played) at third base at 2.84, according to Baseball Reference. He was nominated for two Gold Gloves – his second straight season with a nomination – at third base and utility. However, he fell short to Kansas City’s Maikel Garcia and Houston’s Mauricio Dubon, respectively.
The 29-year-old remains connected to his hometown, and this offseason returned to Rochester to sign over 1,100 autographs as part of a Small Business Saturday event at Innovative Field, where he was also honored by local dignitaries.
Clement is the first player born in Rochester to play in the World Baseball Classic, which began in 2006 and serves as a World Cup-style best-on-best competition featuring players from Major League Baseball and other professional leagues worldwide.
Also joining the American team is another player with Rochester ties: Minnesota Twins outfielder Byron Buxton. The Georgia native played parts of four seasons with the Rochester Red Wings between 2015 and 2018, hitting .310 as a Red Wing while racking up 18 home runs in 100 games for Rochester.
While official rosters have not yet been announced, other former Red Wings that have reportedly committed to the tournament include Australia’s Liam Hendriks and Canada’s Michael Soroka. Harry Ford, a catching prospect acquired by the Nationals this offseason who is a possible player for the 2026 Red Wings, has committed to play for Great Britain, where he has significant family ties.
America has won the World Baseball Classic once, in 2017, and finished second to Japan in 2023, when Shohei Ohtani struck out his then-teammate Mike Trout for a 3-2 victory in the championship game. Japan has won three WBC titles, while the Dominican Republic has won once.
Team USA’s quest for a tournament title begins on March 6 in Houston against Brazil, part of an initial four-game round robin in Pool B where the Americans will also face Italy, Mexico, and Great Britain. A top-two finish in the opening round-robin would send America into a single-elimination bracket that finishes in Miami on March 17. All games will be broadcast on FOX and related sports networks.
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