Team USA Manager Mark DeRosa Discusses Decisions Made In Last Night’s World Baseball Classic Final
It’s Tuesday night, the crowd is absolutely deafening, and Bryce Harper has just done exactly what Bryce Harper does. His massive two-run blast in the eighth inning tied the World Baseball Classic championship game at 2-2. The momentum had completely shifted. Team USA was technically the home team, meaning they had the final at-bat. All they needed was for their bullpen to hold the line in the top of the ninth against a gritty, relentless Team Venezuela.
If you’re managing Team USA, you look out to the bullpen. You know you have Mason Miller, one of the most electric, unhittable relief pitchers on the planet, sitting right there. It’s the championship game. You hand him the baseball and tell him to go win a gold medal, right? Well, if you are Mark DeRosa, the answer is a deeply frustrating, incredibly complicated “no.”
Instead of the flame-throwing Miller, DeRosa called upon Garrett Whitlock to pitch the fateful ninth inning. You could practically hear a collective groan across living rooms from Boston to San Diego. Whitlock promptly walked Luis Arraez to lead off the frame before surrendering a gut-wrenching RBI double to Eugenio Suárez.
Venezuela took a 3-2 lead, brought in their own closer Daniel Palencia to slam the door with a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth, and walked away with their first-ever WBC title. Almost instantly, the internet was out for blood, and DeRosa was standing right in the crosshairs.
Why Mark DeRosa Kept Mason Miller On the Bench
So, what actually happened? Why would a manager leave his best bullet in the chamber during a sudden-death championship fight? “Honoring the Padres,” DeRosa explained in the postgame presser. “Had we taken the lead, he was coming in, but I wasn’t going to bring him in to a tie game.”
Here lies the messy, uncomfortable underbelly of the World Baseball Classic. DeRosa wasn’t just managing a baseball game; he was managing a delicate diplomatic relationship with major league front offices. San Diego Padres President of Baseball Operations A.J. Preller and his staff had placed a very specific, non-negotiable restriction on their star closer: Miller was only available in a strict, one-inning save situation.
Because Team USA was the home team in a tied game, a save situation was mathematically impossible in the top of the ninth. If DeRosa put him in, he would be directly violating the mandate of an MLB team just days before Opening Day. Miller had already thrown 22 pitches against the Dominican Republic on Sunday and 18 pitches against Canada on Friday. The Padres simply weren’t going to let their prized arm blow out his shoulder in March, regardless of what uniform he was wearing.
The Unfair Push and Pull Of the WBC
You really have to feel for DeRosa here. He was essentially managing the biggest international baseball game of the year with one hand tied behind his back. Fans want blood, sweat, and gold medals. Major League Baseball teams want their multi-million-dollar investments to report to spring training without a ruptured UCL. DeRosa is the guy forced to stand in the middle of that intersection and play traffic cop.
Contrast the American approach with Venezuela. Their manager, Omar Lopez, handed the ball to Palencia on back-to-back days to close out games against Italy and the US. Palencia easily mowed down Kyle Schwarber, Gunnar Henderson, and Roman Anthony to win the tournament. Venezuela played to win; Team USA played to survive the constraints of their own roster.
Don’t Let the Bats Off the Hook
As easy as it is to point the finger at DeRosa and his bullpen management, let’s inject a little reality into this conversation: Team USA’s offense was completely atrocious when it mattered most.
You cannot expect to win a championship game with three total hits. Aaron Judge, the guy who is supposed to be the terrifying anchor of the American lineup, looked totally lost. He went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, ending his knockout round performance with five punchouts and only two hits.
Schwarber also went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts of his own. If your biggest bats decide to take the night off, complaining about who threw the ninth inning feels like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
Will Mark DeRosa Return To the Dugout?
Despite the heartbreak, the massive wave of fan criticism, and the headache of navigating front-office pitch limits, DeRosa isn’t ready to walk away. When asked if he would manage Team USA again, he didn’t hesitate.
“It would be 100 percent yes to do it again. Love to get over the finish line,” DeRosa said. “Why? If you saw how hurting the guys are in the locker room now, you’d know why.”
DeRosa cares. He cares about the players, he cares about the tournament, and he clearly cares about the agony of coming up short. Next time, maybe he just needs an offense that can buy him a lead, and a few fewer phone calls from MLB front offices telling him how to manage his bullpen.
