HOUSTON -- A quick glance at Team Brazil’s roster provides pretty standard information about the players -- bats/throws, height/weight, date of birth, hometown and school attended, where applicable.
With no disrespect to Joseph Contreras, his line reads a little bit like … a misprint.
2026 World Baseball Classic
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• Box score: Venezuela 3, USA 2
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Because it’s hard to believe that someone who is in uniform and throwing pitches for any team in the World Baseball Classic was born in 2008. And it’s even harder to imagine that someone born that recently could get one of Major League Baseball’s biggest stars to ground into a double play in front of more than 30,000 fans, and countless more watching on TV.
Meet Joseph Contreras, born May 6, 2008, and the youngest player on any WBC roster. He introduced himself to a packed house at Daikin Park in Houston on Friday night with the poise of someone twice his age.
Facing Aaron Judge with the bases loaded and one out in the second inning of Brazil’s 15-5 loss to Team USA, Contreras -- the son of former Major League pitcher José Contreras -- threw a 94.4 mph fastball, and Judge rolled over it, grounding into a 5-4-3 double play.
Inning over.
“Impressive,” Judge said following the game. “I know I wasn't doing that at that age. Just great stuff. I know he had some poise on the mound. He's throwing up to 100 miles an hour. He's facing Team USA, a lot of guys he has seen on TV.
“It was just impressive, impressive just seeing him control himself out there and get out of a big jam. And he had some good stuff.”
The moment sunk in a little more for Contreras later, when he had some time to think about it.
"Now that I look back I'm like, OK, now I can see the magnitude of bases-loaded, one out," he said. "In the moment I was just, I just have to execute my pitches and just hopefully just get him out somehow, fly ball, maybe ground ball, just force him weak contact."
In an interview on FOX during the game, Team USA manager Mark DeRosa lauded Contreras’ array of pitches, adding, “He’s got his dad’s split, obviously, as well.”
“What a position for him to be in right there -- bases loaded, Aaron Judge, and he's able to get out of it,” DeRosa said.
Contreras is finishing up high school at Blessed Trinity Catholic High School in Roswell, Ga., and has committed to play Division I baseball at Vanderbilt University. He’s also ranked No. 47 on the 2026 Draft prospects list, in case he decides to forego Vanderbilt and pursue a professional career.
His final line on Friday: 1 1/3 innings, two hits, one run, three walks -- and one very big GIDP.