When the Captain speaks, you listen: Judge addresses Team USA ahead of Classic

PHOENIX -- Yankees superstar Aaron Judge has played on seven All-Star teams over his 10-year career in the Majors, but even those squads couldn’t compare to the collection of talent he faced when he stood up to address his Team USA teammates before their first World Baseball Classic workout on Monday.

“The room has a presence,” Judge said. “I think that’s what I felt when I stood up there. Just a presence in this room. We can talk about the players, but look at our coaching staff, too. The whole coaching staff, you’ve got All-Stars, Silver Sluggers, World Series champs. [Pitching coach Andy] Pettitte, one of the best postseason pitchers ever. Some of the best baseball players ever to play the game in one room.

“It was pretty cool to get a chance to address them and talk with them. It’s just an honor. That’s kind of what I kind of started out with. It’s just an honor to be here in front of you and be wearing the same uniform as you guys.”

Trading his Yankees pinstripes for the Team USA jersey was a bit of an adjustment for Judge -- “It was kind of weird seeing my name on the back of the jersey, to start,” he said -- but the three-time AL MVP is embracing the opportunity to serve as his country’s captain and help the Americans chase their first WBC gold since 2017.

Judge said he wasn’t planning on making a speech on Monday, but reigning Cy Young Award winners Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes reached out to him over the offseason and advised him to have some words prepared ahead of the team’s Pool B opener against Brazil at Daikin Park in Houston on Friday.

Judge ended up centering his message around the importance of sacrifice and being able to show up for each other over the next couple of weeks. Team USA will play two exhibition games against the Giants and Rockies in Scottsdale before heading to Texas for the start of pool play on Friday. That won’t give the club a ton of time to build chemistry, but Judge said he hopes to engender more bonding by organizing team dinners and facilitating a steady flow of dialogue between players.

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“That’s one thing I tried to say in the meeting,” Judge said. “Just dive into everybody. Dive into the guy next to you. Get to know him. Ask questions. I think that’s the quickest way, especially when it starts getting real out there on the field. [If] we’re down, tough situation, we know we have each other’s back. We can trust each other. I know the guy next to me is going to do what he needs to win. We’re going to end up doing something special here in a couple weeks.”

Team USA certainly appears built to make a deep run in the WBC this year. Judge took batting practice alongside Bryce Harper, Bobby Witt Jr., and Cal Raleigh at the Giants’ player development center at Papago Park on Monday and then jogged out to the outfield to shag fly balls with Byron Buxton, Kyle Schwarber and Pete Crow-Armstrong.

Judge said he hopes players will take inspiration from the 2026 Winter Olympics, where the U.S. men's and women’s hockey teams both took home gold.

“The Olympics got us hyped up a little bit, especially with the hockey team,” Judge said. “The hockey team making the run they did, the men's and women’s. The boys are juiced. We’ve got a whole group chat about it. We were going back and forth. [Manager Mark DeRosa] and [general manager] Mike [Hill], all these guys that put this team together, man. The room is filled with talent, but I think these are some of the hardest-working guys in the league. To get all those guys in the room feeding off each other, it’s going to be fun once we get out there.”

Serving as the captain of the Yankees has been the biggest honor of Judge’s career, though he said fulfilling the same role for Team USA isn’t too far behind.

“It’s definitely up there,” Judge said. “I never played for Team USA. I never did any of that growing up, so getting a chance to do it now and be the captain with the team that we have, the team that we put together, it’s definitely up there. Captain of the Yankees is No. 1 still in my heart, but getting a chance to be the captain for your country is hard to describe.”