The World Baseball Classic has been (Lug)nuts

The 2026 World Baseball Classic has been filled with drama, high level baseball... and Lansing Lugnuts alumni.

Begin with Team USA, turning to 2022 Lugnut flamethrower Mason Miller (pictured above) to close out its wins, with southpaw Matthew Boyd (2013) also available in the bullpen.

Hitters are now 0-50 with 39 K’s against Mason Miller since September 8th pic.twitter.com/AIb6I8FZWY

— Peter Appel (@PeterAppel23) March 16, 2026

While Miller is the most prominent Lugnuts pitcher in the Majors, the Dominican Republic starred the prominent hitter in Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. (2016), with original Nut Carlos Febles (1996) on the DR's coaching staff.

Robinson Chirinos (2003-2004) was a member of the Venezuela coaching staff, while Sal Fasano (2010 manager) served with Italy alongside infielder Jon Berti (2012).

Among the hitters: Otto López (2019) and Denzel Clarke (2022) were regulars for Canada; as were Alejandro Kirk (2019) and Rowdy Tellez (2016-17) for Mexico; Jordan Diaz (2021) and Bryan Buelvas (2022-24) for Colombia; and Leo Jiménez (2019) for Panama.

Among pitchers, Eduardo Rivera (2024) looked good for Puerto Rico, Graham Spraker saw action for Great Britain, Osman Gutiérrez (2017) was on the Nicaragua staff, Pedro Santos (2023) fired heat for Cuba, and a trio of Nuts – Tzu-Chen Sha (2025), Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang (2024) and Wei-En Lin (2025) – twirled for Chinese Taipei.

Lastly, though they ultimately finished last, there was the proud team from Brazil, with Eric Pardinho (2019) in its pitching corps and Gabriel Maciel (2022) in its outfield (plus Bo Bichette's older brother, Dante Jr., in the starting lineup).

All told, that's 20 players and three coaches representing the Lansing Lugnuts on the world stage, all part of an electrifying tournament that has brought the world together for the love of baseball.