Padres News: Expert Wants Josh Hader To Lead Team USA’s Bullpen in 2026 WBC

Maybe this will help the U.S. avenge this year's loss.

With the World Baseball Classic now wrapped up, it was a solid outing for many of our own players from the San Diego Padres. We got to watch them perform and give us a little preview of how they'll be hitting the field for us this season and Yu Darvish was able to capture yet another title with Team Japan.

In order to do so, they had to take down a star-studded Team USA that was highlighted by names such as Mookie Betts, Mike Trout, and Trea Turner just to name a couple of them. However, their star power did not prove to be enough as they lost 3-2 and Shohei Ohtani continues add more reasons why your Friars should take a very close look at bringing him in this next free agency period.

Nobody goes into an international tournament looking to go the full mile and lose in the last game so MLB experts have already begun plotting how the U.S. can compile an even better roster for the next WBC in 2026. Zachary D. Rymer did so in his latest wishlist piece on Bleacher Report and is vouching for the squad to add who I think is one of the most underrated relievers in the league: Josh Hader of the Padres.

Had you landed on Earth after a year in outer space & I told u Josh Hader posted 36SV, 2.38SIERA, 37.0%K & 73.6%Zone-Con while adding +1mph to an already ridiculous Sinker (30.7%Whiff), whered u think he finished?#Context

Top-625 is LIVE! $9.99 one timehttps://t.co/PQT5BBy20A pic.twitter.com/233CJArpQB

— John Laghezza MLB / NFL Moving Averages (@JohnLaghezza) March 13, 2023

"Relief pitching is a notoriously volatile profession, so trying to pick out eight guys who might still be good at it in 2026 might as well be the new definition of insanity.But as far as guys who are good at it right now, Hader leads all relievers in

rWAR

dating back to 2017 and he fully recovered from a bad slump in 2022 before the year was even over."

(Via Bleacher Report)

Everybody remembers Hader's historic 2022 postseason and it shouldn't have came as a surprise. His ERA was looking very rough at times during the regular season but he was always bound to get back to form at some point. Hader has won Reliever of the Year three times in his career and his resume speaks for itself.

The 28-year-old seems to be focused on his role with the Friars and wants to help[ win a World Series but it is very clear why Team USA could use him in their next international outing.