LAS VEGAS -- Hours after earning top-10 finishes in the National League Most Valuable Player vote, two of baseball’s brightest young stars made some news at the MLB Awards.
Corbin Carroll and Pete Crow-Armstrong were announced as the two newest members of Team USA, joining AL MVP Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh and Paul Skenes on manager Mark DeRosa’s roster for next spring’s World Baseball Classic.
“We need some energy, some youth infused,” DeRosa said. “We're going to have the big captain, the AL MVP, standing in right field. But I think we need some young guns to go get it, to hit some homers.”
DeRosa then invited Crow-Armstrong and Carroll to the stage, handing them each Team USA jerseys to officially welcome them to the team.
“You knew I would eventually be calling,” DeRosa said to Crow-Armstrong. “So you came up to me during the Home Run Derby, and what did you say?”
“I said, ‘Whenever you call, you know my answer is yes,’” Crow-Armstrong said. “I love playing for my country more than anything. Getting to play for you, getting to play with Cal, Corbs, Mr. Judge; it’s going to be great.”
DeRosa asked Crow-Armstrong if he was going to be sporting the stars and stripes in his hair during the WBC.
“If that’s what this requires, then yeah,” Crow-Armstrong said.
Carroll said he was watching football when he received a call from DeRosa asking him to be a part of Team USA. Roy Wood, one of the co-hosts of Thursday’s awards show, asked Carroll if his decision was difficult given that the commitment will impact his offseason routine to some extent.
“It was not a hard decision,” Carroll said. “I couldn’t be more excited. It’s going to be awesome.”
Shortly after being named to Team USA, Crow-Armstrong and Carroll were both named to the 2025 All-MLB second team. Judge, Raleigh and Skenes were all named first-team All-MLB on Thursday night.
Raleigh, who finished second to Judge in this year’s American League MVP vote, announced back in July that he had committed to Team USA. He called the chance to represent his country “a rare opportunity.”
“When I got the call, it was an immediate yes, not even thinking twice about it,” Raleigh said. “Getting to represent your country and getting to play on the biggest stage in baseball, it will be a lot of fun getting to play with some of the best players in the world and getting to compete against them, as well. It’s giving me goose bumps as we speak.”
Mike Hill, Team USA’s general manager, joined DeRosa on stage at Thursday’s MLB Awards to make the announcement.
“We were pretty fortunate,” Hill said. “We wanted to set the tone early and get some of the best players in baseball committed to Team USA.”