Team Canada achieved a new best at the 2026 World Baseball Classic, as they advanced to the knockout stage for the first time ever at the tournament.
Improved pitching by the Canadians played a key role in the success the nation had at this year’s tournament.
The fewest runs per game the Canadian team allowed in any of the previous five WBC tournaments it competed in was 6.0, when they were relegated following the 2009 tournament.
In 16 games at the WBC in the first five tournaments, Canadian pitching allowed exactly seven runs per game. In five games at this year’s edition, Canadian pitching allowed just 2.5 runs per game - including just five runs allowed against a vaunted United States lineup in the quarter-finals.
If Canadian pitching can continue to improve after the major step taken forward this year, the country can set its sights even higher than a quarter-final exit.
Here is a look at the Canadian pitchers around MLB in 2026, with a mention of some names coming up as prospects in the near future as well.
Matt Brash – RHP, Seattle Mariners
Hometown: Kingston, Ont.
2025 Stats: 53 appearances, 2.47 ERA, 47.1 IP, 58 SO
After sitting out the entirety of the 2024 campaign with Tommy John surgery, Brash returned in 2025 and put up the best season of his young career with a 2.47 earned-run average.
Brash was spectacular in the postseason, allowing just two earned runs in eight appearances (9.0 innings pitched).
Brash elected not to represent Canada at the WBC, but the sky is the limit for the hard-throwing righty, who will combine with Andres Munoz to form an overpowering back of the bullpen for the Mariners as they seek to improve upon their ALCS finish in 2025.
Nick Pivetta - RHP, San Diego Padres
Hometown: Victoria, B.C.
2025 Stats: 31 appearances, 2.87 ERA, 181.2 IP, 190 SO
Pivetta has always had the stuff throughout his career to be an impactful arm, he has just never been able to do so consistently over the course of a season - until 2025.
Pivetta had the best campaign of his life, finishing sixth in NL Cy Young voting after setting new career bests in innings, strikeouts and ERA.
Pivetta allowed a lot of hard contact in 2025, but his strikeout and walk rates were both in the upper echelon of the league; his key to success last season was limiting home runs, with his 1.1 home runs allowed per nine innings marking the lowest rate in his career by far.
Replicating that will give Pivetta a strong push towards Cy Young contention again in his age-33 season.
Pivetta chose not to represent Canada at the WBC this year, citing a concern over arm fatigue early in camp. He last pitched for Canada at the tournament in 2017.
Zach Pop - RHP, Philadelphia Phillies
Hometown: Brampton, Ont.
2025 Stats: 5 appearances, 14.85 ERA, 6.2 IP, 3 SO
Pop made his 2025 debut with the Seattle Mariners on June 16. He put together three solid performances before a blowup game against the Minnesota twins on June 26, where he allowed eight runs in an inning in a 10-1 defeat.
The team waived the 29-year-old after that game, and he struggled in his only game with the New York Mets 10 days later, where he allowed three runs in an inning and a third.
In the end, Pop would not get another chance in the majors and finished his 2026 season with a 14.85 ERA.
In 2026, Pop, who did not join Canada at the WBC, will get a chance to get his career back on track in a potential depth role in the Phillies’ bullpen.
Cal Quantrill - RHP, Texas Rangers
Hometown: Port Hope, Ont.
2025 Stats: 26 appearances, 6.04 ERA, 117.2 IP, 85 SO
Cal Quantrill, son of former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Paul Quantrill, attended Spring Training with the Texas Rangers as a non-roster invitee after a disastrous 2025 campaign in which he pitched for the Marlins and Atlanta Braves.
Though Quantrill was able to get his walk rate down to a very respectable 6.8 per cent, his hard contact allowed skyrocketed in 2025. Quantrill has never been a strikeout pitcher, but he was unable to induce enough weak contact in 2025 to have a successful season.
The 31-year-old Quantrill may start the season as a free agent, depending on how the roster shakes out with the Rangers.
Quantrill made one start for Canada at the WBC against Cuba, where he allowed one unearned run over five innings in the Pool A-clinching victory over Cuba. More performances of that level are needed to help Quantrill stick around in the majors this season.
Jordan Romano - RHP, Philadelphia Phillies
Hometown: Markham, Ont.
2025 Stats: 49 appearances, 8.23 ERA, 42.2 IP, 47 SO
Romano was a back-to-back All-Star with the Blue Jays in 2022 and ’23, but is in a similar spot to Pop in 2026: A veteran Canadian relief pitcher potentially fighting for a roster spot in Philadelphia.
Romano was hit by injuries in his final season in Toronto in 2024, but the bottom fell out completely with the Phillies in 2025.
Romano’s average fastball velocity was over 97 mph when he entered the league in 2019, but as it dwindles - he averaged a career-low of 95.5 mph in 2025 - hitters have been able to hit him harder and harder. In 2025, hitters put more balls in the air against him than ever before in his career, and he allowed a career-high 10 home runs.
Over the past two seasons, Romano has allowed a slugging percentage of .523 against.
Erik Sabrowski - LHP, Cleveland Guardians
Hometown: Edmonton, Alb.
2025 Stats: 33 appearances, 1.84 ERA, 29.1 IP, 42 SO
Sabrowski took control of a bullpen spot with the Guardians in a big way in 2025, allowing just six runs in 33 appearances after he was called up in late June. He pitched in all three games in the AL Wild-Card round, proving that Guardians manager Stephen Vogt has trust in the lefty.
If there’s one area that Sabrowski will need to improve upon, it’s his control. Sabrowski walked an astronomical 17.4 per cent of batters in 2025, leading to a WHIP of 1.193 despite a stellar ERA number.
That walk rate is more than double the MLB average of 8.3 per cent. Sabrowski elected not to pitch for Canada at the WBC.
Cade Smith - RHP, Cleveland Guardians
Hometown: Abbotsford, B.C.
2025 Stats: 76 appearances, 2.93 ERA, 73.2 IP, 104 SO
Cade Smith was dominant for the Guardians for the second consecutive season in 2025, stepping in to the closer role late in the season after Emmanuel Clase was suspended in relation to a gambling investigation.
Smith finished with an 8-5 record and 16 saves, and is expected to serve as the team’s primary closer in 2026.
The pairing of Smith and Sabrowski in the back end of the Guardians’ bullpen will provide an uncommon one-two punch of Canadian arms.
Smith did not pitch for Canada at the WBC this year.
Michael Soroka - RHP, Arizona Diamondbacks
Hometown: Calgary
2025 Stats: 22 appearances, 4.52 ERA, 892. IP, 95 SO
Soroka burst onto the scene in 2019 with the Braves, where he finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting after pitching to a 2.68 ERA in 29 starts. It’s been a struggle to recapture that brilliance since, with two seasons lost to two separate major surgeries in 2021 and 2022.
Soroka has not been the same starting pitcher since, but he had an encouraging end to his campaign in 2025 with the Cubs, allowing just one run across six appearances (8.1 innings).
Soroka made two starts for Canada at the WBC, where he allowed four runs (three earned) over 5.2 innings pitched.
How well he does this year may come down to where the Diamondbacks choose to employ him, as he has shown the ability to succeed - and struggle - both in the starting rotation and coming out of the bullpen.
Jameson Taillon - RHP, Chicago Cubs
Hometown: Lakeland, Fla.
2025 Stats: 23 appearances, 3.68 ERA, 129.2 IP, 98 SO
Born and raised in the United States to Canadian parents, Taillon has both Canadian and American citizenship and has chosen to represent Canada in international competition.
Taillon has played for Canada at the WBC twice; while as a prospect with the Pirates in 2013, and at this year’s tournament. Taillon made one start at the tournament this year, where he allowed one run over 3.2 innings.
It was business as usual for the 34-year-old Taillon in 2025 with the Cubs; Taillon has become a dependable back-of-the-rotation arm through his career, and finished the 2025 campaign with an 11-7 record and an average of just under six innings pitched per outing.
Jonah Tong - RHP, New York Mets
Hometown: Markham, Ont.
2025 Stats: 5 appearances, 7.71 ERA, 18.2 IP, 22 SO
The 22-year-old Tong was a surprise story in the Mets’ system a year ago, as he entered the campaign relatively unheralded before dominating the minors and essentially forcing a late-season call-up to the majors.
Tong made 20 starts at Double-A with a 1.59 ERA, then pitched two scoreless outings at Triple-A before he made his MLB debut on Aug. 29.
There were some rocky outing in the majors for Tong, as the team was fading out of the playoff hunt in September, and it was announced earlier in March that Tong will begin the 2026 season in the minors.
But the No. 48 prospect in MLB, per MLB Pipeline, should have a shot to contribute in a big way this season whenever the Mets decide to bring him back.
Rob Zastryzny - LHP, Milwaukee Brewers
Hometown: Edmonton
2025 Stats: 26 appearances, 2.45 ERA, 22.0 IP, 20 SO
Zastryzny battled injuries in 2025 and pitched in just 48 games throughout the season. After starting the season in the Yankees’ system, Zastryzny joined the Brewers as a waiver claim in May but was sidelined for two months with a rib injury in June.
Zastryzny put together a solid season overall for the Brewers, helping the team to the best record in the majors, but was left off of the postseason roster.
Zastryzny should deliver more of the same this year for Milwaukee, as he’s built a reputation of a solid lefty option out of the bullpen throughout his seven years in the bigs.
The 34-year-old pitched one scoreless inning for Canada at this year’s WBC.
Other Canadians to keep an eye on:
Jodan Balazovic (DET, Triple-A), Eric Cerantola (KC, Triple-A, pitched at the WBC), Miguel Cienfuegos (SDP, Triple-A), Indigo Diaz (NYY, Double-A, pitched at the WBC), Garrett Hawkins (SDP, Double-A), Justin King (MIA, Triple-A), Carter Loewen (SDP, Triple-A), Connor O’Halloran (TOR, High-A), James Paxton (Free agent, pitched at the WBC), Adam Macko (TOR, Triple-A, pitched at the WBC), Logan Allen (Free agent, pitched at the WBC)
