ORLANDO — Major league ballclubs are not the only teams expressing interest in Yankees players at the Winter Meetings, as several pinstripers are being courted for the 2026 World Baseball Classic.
With Aaron Judge already captaining Team USA for the tournament, Great Britain hopes to have Jazz Chisholm Jr. The feeling is mutual, according to the team’s performance director, Gary Anderson.
“Jazz is very, very interested, and so are we,” Anderson said Tuesday. “We have to go through a process to get players to play — not just Jazz, but lots of different players — and we are working very hard to make it happen. The good thing is Jazz wants it to happen. We want it to happen. Everybody else wants it to happen. I don’t think anybody’s fighting against it.”
Chisholm’s agent confirmed the second baseman’s interest in playing for Great Britain and added that he’s just waiting for medicals to clear. Chisholm missed time last season with an oblique strain, and he was also nagged by a groin issue.
Chisholm, eligible to play for Great Britain as a native of the Bahamas, is coming off a dynamic season, as he authored the fourth 30-30 campaign in Yankees history. He has suited up for Great Britain in the past, playing for the country in the 2016 WBC qualifiers.
Chisholm was initially expected to play for Great Britain in the 2023 WBC, but he ultimately did not participate. The British team, lacking MLB stars, went 1-3 in the tournament.
Now Anderson is hoping for better results with Chisholm, Boston’s Aroldis Chapman and Washington’s Harry Ford all potentially in the mix.
“What I will guarantee anybody is we will have a much stronger team than we did last time,” Anderson said. He added that Chisholm is a “tremendous athlete, and we need to have tremendous athletes on our team.”
Anderson also described Chisholm as a “character” — a colorful one that Yankees fans have become familiar with — and said he’s looking forward to getting to know him better.
With Great Britain after Chisholm, Puerto Rico’s general manager, ex-Yankee Carlos Beltrán, said that Fernando Cruz is on his provisional roster. The reliever, known for a devastating splitter, had a 3.56 ERA and 72 strikeouts over 48 innings last season, his first with the Yankees.
“He brings, hopefully, a lot of outs, a lot of swing and miss,” Beltrán said. “Fernando brings energy, passion, excitement. He’s a guy that did it with the Yankees at a very high level this year.”
Meanwhile, the Dominican Republic’s manager, future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols, said that he spoke to Yankees catcher Austin Wells about participating in the WBC. However, Pujols noted that Wells has a child on the way, which could impact his availability.
Wells was born in Arizona, but his mom is of Dominican descent.
David Bednar’s agent said that the closer is interested in playing for Team USA again after doing so in 2023, while the YES Network’s Jack Curry added that outfielder Cody Bellinger, a priority for the Yankees in free agency, is being targeted by the same squad. Then there’s utilityman José Caballero, who has expressed interest in playing for Panama.
So far, Judge is the only Yankee officially committed to the WBC, but it looks like he’ll be seeing at least a few teammates in the competition.
However, Max Fried won’t be among them. USA manager Mark DeRosa said that he invited the left-hander to play, but Fried declined, per Curry.
