Aaron Judge was announced as Team USA captain for the 2026 World Baseball Classic. He has been the captain of the New York Yankees for four year and some of his teammates find him to be the fitting choice.
Lately, Judge has been receiving criticism from his locker room speech to the rest of the players in Arizona as they gear up for the pool stage games of the 2026 WBC edition.
“We’re down, we’re beat up a little bit, man,” he said. “You know, lean into each other, man. We’re going to lay it out on the line.”
The speech is going viral for all the wrong reasons. Some are raising concerns over Judge’s motivation level as the speech supposedly didn’t have the high energy it should have.
Despite voices being raised over Judge, two of his former and current Yankees teammates, Clay Holmes and Paul Goldschmidt, have come forward to defend the Yankees captain’s status entering the 2026 WBC.
Goldschmidt, who joined the Yankees last season, shared why he feels Judge is the best man for the job.
“He’s so selfless. He has no ego,” Goldschmidt said. “He cares about the team more than himself, whether it’s with the Yankees, now Team USA, probably every team he’s ever played for. He’s the best leader I’ve ever been around, just because he wants to make everyone better. He doesn’t make it about himself, and he’s just always looking for ways to get better and for us to win.”
Clay Holmes, who played four seasons with the Yankees before joining the Mets last season, vouched for Judge’s people management skills.
“He’s just a leader. I think he’s just, it comes natural for him,” Holmes said. “Obviously, he can do things special on the baseball field and it’s exciting to watch him play, but to see how he leads in his own special way and how he makes everyone feel included, how he brings people together is just, he has a great way about him in doing that. And seeing how he’s been doing that here with this team is, it just reminds me of playing with him back with the Yankees.”
Aaron Judge Shares Locker Room Excitement for 2026 WBC
Aaron Judge & Co. will soon begin their World Baseball Classic campaign on Thursday. They are in Pool B, including teams Mexico, Italy, Great Britain and Brazil. Ahead of the tournament featuring 20 nations, Judge shared the excitement among Team USA players for this edition.
“To get a chance to represent your country, and just be out there wearing the red, white and blue, see everybody with American flags in the stands — it’s gonna be incredible,” said Judge. “I’ve talked to a lot of the guys on the team. They’re juiced up. They’re excited.”
Under Judge, Team USA will hope to win their second WBC after previously winning it in 2017. They came very close last edition but came up short against Shohei Ohtani’s Japan.
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