Craig Breslow pumps the brakes on Roman Anthony and Garrett Crochet joining Team USA, keeping Boston’s cornerstone duo focused squarely on 2026.
With each passing day this offseason, there has seemingly been some sort of story that’s come down about the Red Sox.
Whether it’s a free agent rumor, a trade, an injury update, a Gold Glove win, a Hall of Fame snub - pick a day, and there has been a story come down as it relates to this team.
On Monday, Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow met with the media after day one of the 2025 Winter Meetings down in Orlando, FL, and he added yet another topic to the docket for Boston baseball news:
World Baseball Classic participation.
I know that doesn’t necessarily move the needle like it did ahead of the first WBC back in 2006, but baseball’s premier international event still draws a massive audience worldwide, and Team USA is always among the favorites to win the tournament.
With baseball’s closest thing to a world cup returning in 2026, and with the Red Sox having two American studs on their roster that profile as players that Team USA should be thinking about adding, Breslow was asked by MassLive’s Chris Cotillo if Roman Anthony or Garrett Crochet would be a part of Team USA’s roster early next year.
@ChrisCotillo on X: “Some WBC news: Craig Breslow doesn’t expect Garrett Crochet or Roman Anthony to participate.”
For Red Sox fans who love watching international baseball tournaments, this might be a bummer.
For Red Sox fans who want to see their team win a World Series, this is almost certainly a relief.
With how important Crochet is to this starting rotation, there is no need to add anything else to his innings load for 2026. The AL Cy Young runner-up was second in all of baseball last season in innings pitched (205.1), throwing 3,151 pitches across his 32 regular season starts.
And with the front office adding guys this offseason via the trade market that profile more as tier-B starters - Sonny Gray from St. Louis and Johan Oviedo from Pittsburgh - Boston cannot afford to lose their workhorse No, 1 starter at any point during the 2026 season if they want to have a real chance at competing for a World Series (+2000, per OddsTrader).
On the Anthony front, this one seems obvious.
After an injury to his oblique in early September knocked Anthony out for the rest of the 2025 season, the emphasis for the outfielder moving forward became getting healthy enough this offseason to allow the 21-year-old to not skip a beat in his development heading into his second season.
After finishing as a finalist for AL Rookie of the Year despite only being called to the majors on June 9, it’s not outlandish to say that Anthony, if he follows the development path he’s capable of, could be a real candidate for AL MVP in 2026. Given the way he impacted Boston’s lineup so quickly after being called up to the majors with a slash line of .292/.396/.463, the sky’s the limit for what this guy is capable of accomplishing when starting with the big league club on opening day next spring.
So for American fans of the Boston Red Sox, Crochet and Anthony are off the table.
It also should be noted that Anthony would have been eligible to play for Team Italy, which I would not rule out in the future. He was in attendance at the Italian-American Baseball Foundation gala in New York last week, which suggests playing for the country of his families heritage is on his radar for the future.
Team USA won’t be completely without Red Sox representation, as reliever Garrett Whitlock is slated to join the roster. They’ll also be able to watch Ceddanne Rafaela on Team Netherlands and could see Masataka Yoshida on Team Japan, whom he played for in 2023.
Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.