DAIKIN PARK (Houston) – Months before he was distributing espresso shots and cheek-kisses to home-run hitters in the dugout and handing out bottles of wine to the players on the best team in Italy’s baseball history, Vinnie Pasquantino was bored on Thanksgiving. So, the country’s best baseball recruiter used the holiday to reach out to prospective players, as he had done for much of the year after committing to the team for the World Baseball Classic in early 2025. “It was kind of messed up thinking about it, but… I didn’t have a whole lot going on, and I was like, ‘Oh, this would be a good day to hit everybody’s Instagram DMs,’” Pasquantino told me ahead of Wednesday’s game against Mexico. “So, there was a lot of DM’ing that day. That’s when the WhatsApp was created for the group. It’s been a lot of fun trying to help create this team.” The seeds were being planted for what would become the WBC’s improbable juggernaut, a group consisting primarily of prospects and novice MLB players who quickly blossomed into the tournament’s success story by stunning much more experienced and decorated rosters along the way with their own distinctive panache. The Italians left the best U.S. roster ever assembled dumbfounded in an upset victory on Tuesday. One night later, they bulldozed a Mexico squad that nearly made it to the WBC finals three years ago. That capped the Azzurri’s perfect 4-0 start to the competition to win Pool B and advance to the quarterfinals. “I’m, like, weirdly emotional tonight, to the point I’m thinking about crying,” Pasquantino said in his postgame press conference after his three-homer performance over Mexico helped send Italy through to the next round, “which is funny for a tournament in March.” Really, though, this represented so much more than normal March baseball for the team’s captain, who was so moved by his experience playing for Italy in 2023 — and his trip to the country before that WBC — that he spent the better part of the last year doing whatever he could to help the Italian Baseball Federation field the best roster imaginable for this tournament. The near-catharsis was the culmination of all the effort that led into Wednesday night. “I committed in what would have been spring of last year, right at the beginning of spring training, letting them know that I was in,” Pasquantino told me before the Mexico game. “From there, it was, ‘All right, who do we need to go get? Send me phone numbers. I’ll make cold calls, whatever I need to do.” After receiving a target list of players to call from Italy’s coaches and staff, the Royals’ gregarious first baseman hit the recruiting trail. “I think they know I have a bigger personality, so it was more from their end, ‘If we really need a guy, will you call him?'” Pasquantino said during our chat before Mexico’s game. “And I think from my end, it was like, ‘Why don’t I just call everybody?’” “I think he reached out to everyone,” Italy infielder Andrew Fischer confirmed. “He took this team by the reins, brought us together.” “You’ve got to find out who’s eligible and things like that,” Pasquantino added, “but once we were able to find out different things about guys, that’s when the phone calls really started.” Some pitches, like the one to Pasquantino’s Royals teammate Jac Caglianone, were easy. Some fell short, like the one to Red Sox standout Roman Anthony. Pasquantino had a conversation with the 21-year-old talent, but it never got far. Anthony told me he had no plans to participate for any team in the World Baseball Classic, and was set on staying in Boston’s camp, until USA manager Mark DeRosa called. His Red Sox manager, Alex Cora, thought that was an opportunity he wouldn’t want to miss. In other cases, Pasquantino’s perseverance paid off. He pestered veteran pitcher Michael Lorenzen about joining the squad for years. “When Vinnie asked me if I wanted to play, I did tell him I would only do it if I was a two-way player,” Lorenzen said. That hasn’t happened, at least yet. For now, Italy is just happy to see Lorenzen thriving on the mound, where the veteran MLB pitcher blanked USA’s star-studded lineup for 4.2 scoreless innings in the upset victory that Italy manager Francisco Cervelli described as one of the best days of his life. “Everybody in Italy should see this,” Cervelli said after the win over the USA. “We’re doing it for them, for the kids. It can happen. It’s possible.” Anthony was in the losing dugout of that Italy win, one that threatened to end USA’s run before it could ever really get going. Maybe that defeat wakes up Team USA, which is still fully capable of avenging its 2023 finals defeat and going all the way, thanks to Italy’s win against Mexico on Wednesday. To this point, though, it’s been Italy having most of the fun. “It’s unbelievable how close this group has gotten in such a quick timeframe,” said MLB veteran Jon Berti, who played for the Cubs last season. “Vinnie gets a huge credit for that. He set the tone early for us. He’s an awesome leader, very fun to be around and kind of drew everybody in and together.” Pasquantino was also responsible for the professional manner in which Italy handled the biggest baseball win in its country’s history. In the aftermath of avenging a 2023 loss to Mexico, Team USA stayed back hours after the win sharing stories and sipping drinks together in the clubhouse. “There’s some guys dragging today,” DeRosa said to reporters the following day, hours before suffering one of the most surprising defeats in WBC history against an unafraid, unyielding, undefeated Italy squad. Pasquantino knew that a 3-0 start wouldn’t mean much if Italy turned around and had a similar letdown the next day against Mexico. So after the win against Team USA, he told his group that once midnight hit, it was time to turn the page. “We had a good time in there,” Pasquantino told me, “but nobody’s dragging over here today.” The results of a 9-1 win against Mexico backed that up. ‘This Team Might Be Different’ Three years ago, Pasquantino was part of an Italy roster that advanced out of WBC pool play without hitting a single home run. This time — an example of the strides the country has taken since then — it has already launched 12. Italy’s offense ranks second in the tournament in both home runs and OPS, despite lacking the established MLB talent that other rosters possess. It does, however, have the best arms it has ever taken to the tournament in Lorenzen and Aaron Nola, a plethora of intriguing young MLB talents in Pasquantino, Caglianone, White Sox catcher Kyle Teel, Marlins outfielder Jakob Marsee and Mariners outfielder Dominic Canzone and promising prospects in Fischer, Aldegheri, Dante Nori and Sam Antonacci. Pasquantino knew for Italy to succeed, he had to foster the right environment for the youthful group to feel comfortable. Quickly, he noticed the unusual confidence the team’s recent draft picks already possessed. “The first day we had a workout, Andrew Fischer talked a bunch of crap about the music I was playing,” Pasquantino told me, “and I was like, ‘All right, you take it.’ I was just playing simple EDM music. But that’s when I kind of knew, all right, this team might be kind of different. “These guys just aren’t scared, and that’s the coolest part, and that’s where I feel like it’s my job to let them know, like, yeah you shouldn’t be scared, this is what you should be doing, having a good time, having a blast, playing with your chest out.” Their fearlessness has been evident throughout the tournament. Aldeghiri, a 24-year-old Angels prospect, threw 4.2 scoreless innings in his lone start. Nori, a 2024 first-round pick of the Phillies, is 6-for-12 with two homers. Antonacci, one of the top position player prospects for the White Sox, has two extra-base hits. And Fischer, a first-round pick of the Brewers last year and the Energizer bunny personified, is 3-for-8 with a home run. “My personality, sometimes, is not really easy to work with,” Fischer told me. “I’m an extrovert. I’m from Jersey. I don’t really care a lot of the time what some guys think of me…but I just come in with a very loud personality, and fortunately enough, they took me in with open arms. “Vinnie’s done a great job kind of taming me back but also letting me be myself,” Fischer continued. “There’s been times I wasn’t sure how he’d react, and I see he has my back, and I feel very good about it, and other times that I’m not sure how he would react and he puts me in my place, and I respect him because he’s been in the game a long time. So, he’s a great leader, great captain.” ‘I Wish My Grandfather Was Still Around’ Even when Pasquantino started the tournament 0-for-12, Antonacci described the captain as the team MVP because of the way he made his teammates feel so comfortable. The slow start offensively did bother Pasquantino, who told Cervelli he would understand if he got dropped from the clean-up spot in the order, but he also knew the value he was providing outside the batter’s box. “I’ve been dog s— at the plate,” he said Wednesday afternoon, before his breakout performance. “I’m not hiding from that. It doesn’t feel the best right now. But… what I see the captaincy being, it’s not about performance in my opinion, it’s about what you can bring to the team. I know these guys are looking to me for mostly offense, which I haven’t been able to provide, but showing them, like, ‘Look, guys, it’s not going well for me right now, that doesn’t mean it can’t go well for the team. That’s what this game’s all about. “I’m not going to have it every night, and I haven’t had it the first three games. It doesn’t mean I won’t have it tonight.” On Wednesday against Mexico, he found it. In his first at-bat, he snapped his skid with a solo homer to start the scoring. Then came another in the sixth, and another in the eighth, all pulled out to right field at Daikin Park. Three homers meant three espresso shots awaiting in the dugout. Finally, he was downing the coffee and not just handing it out. It was the first time at any level of baseball that Pasquantino could remember homering three times in a game. “The Hall of Fame reached out,” Pasquantino said. “It’s the first time they’ve ever reached out for something of mine. … They liked the bat. I said, ‘I need the bat for a few more days.’” One day, Pasquantino’s goal is for Italy’s roster to be composed of actual Italy natives. There are only three on the roster in pitchers Aldegheri, Gabriele Quattrini and Claudio Scotti. For now, though, the focus is on growing the game in the country and showing kids in Italy what is possible. And the best way to do that is by winning games with this group of primarily Italian-Americans. It seems to be working. “Someone sent me a clip. [Italy’s] prime minister gave us a little bit of a shout-out this morning,” said Berti, an eight-year MLB veteran who grew up in Michigan. “I wish my grandfather was still around. He would be loving this.”Latest Sports News from FOX Sports
