Angels Reliever Joins Team USA as Injury Replacement For World Baseball Classic at Last Minute

They must have liked what they saw in the exhibition.

Team USA is less than 24 hours away from their opening game in the World Baseball Classic against Great Britain. They finished their exhibitions against the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Angels, and are set to get real games underway. Well, almost set I guess.

Late Friday night, Team USA made one final addition to their roster — at least I assume it’s the last one — and they went to the team they most recently played in the exhibition for a player.

Aaron Loup, the Angels’ left-handed reliever, will be joining USA just ahead of their first WBC game. Loup is joining the team as an injury replacement for LHP Brooks Raley.

Aaron Loup is #ALLIN for Team USA 🇺🇸

The lefty joins the squad due to injury. pic.twitter.com/8Jx9ygRRLi

— USA Baseball (@USABaseball) March 11, 2023

Loup had a solid season in Anaheim last year, sporting a 3.84 ERA in 65 appearances. Clearly, the US needed another left-handed reliever, so they went with someone they just saw in the exhibition game on Thursday.

Loup will now be joining a star-studded US team, led by his teammate, the captain Mike Trout. It'll be a quick transition for him, going from normal Angels spring training to playing meaningful games on the world stage.

Fortunately, Loup has already gotten some work in this spring. He's had two scoreless outings in the Cactus League, and, like I said before, pitched in the fourth inning of the exhibition game against his new team. He had a scoreless and hitless inning against USA and, clearly, impressed them enough to earn this spot.

Congrats to Loup on this incredible honor! Go help USA bring home the gold!