Mark DeRosa can’t keep his story straight about incorrect WBC claim

In 1907, author Maurice Switzer wrote, “It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it.”

Team USA manager Mark DeRosa should have headed those words this week following his initial gaffe. Instead, he’s only made things more confusing.

After losing to Italy on Tuesday night, the Americans had to sweat the outcome of Italy’s win over Mexico on Thursday before officially advancing to the World Baseball Classic quarterfinals. Team USA manager Mark DeRosa was probably sweating double after it was revealed that he seemed to have been under the assumption his team had already qualified for the next round, regardless of the Italy game outcome.

“It’s weird. We want to win this game, even though our ticket’s punched to the quarterfinals,” DeRosa told MLB Network’s Hot Stove before the Italy loss. “I’m going to get some guys off their feet, no question about it. I’d like to get [Paul Goldschmidt] a start. He has been awesome; just a leader of men behind the scenes with Aaron Judge. I’d like to get him in there. I’d like to get Gunnar (Henderson) in there again.”

It’s hard to read those quotes and think anything other than DeRosa believed they were already qualified and that the Italy game was a formality.

The manager spoke with the media following the loss to Italy, saying that he “misspoke” and “completely misread the calculation.”

“We knew that Mexico was gonna play Italy, and then running all the numbers if we lost tonight with the runs allowed and runs scored and outs. So I just misspoke,” he added.

DeRosa’s explanation was a little hard to pin down. He seemed to be saying he knew Team USA hadn’t officially advanced yet, but that doesn’t explain why he literally said they had in the initial interview. The term “misspoke” would make sense if he had misinterpreted the calculations in terms of what they needed to do to advance, instead of completely saying the opposite thing altogether.

After MLB seemingly removed the initial video clip before restoring it on Wednesday, DeRosa spoke with the media again on Thursday. This time, he seemed adamant that he had always known Team USA had not yet qualified before the Italy game.

“There’s a couple false narratives out there. I was well aware that we had to win that game based on all the scenarios. They went in 2-0. We went in 2-0.”

USA was 3-0 pic.twitter.com/tjwDKfZplK

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) March 12, 2026

“It’s just an overly confident statement on Hot Stove. Period. The end. And it’s my fault,” said DeRosa of his initial comments. “…There’s a couple false narratives out there, but no, I was well aware that we had to win that game, based on all the scenarios that could take place. They went in 2-0. We went in 2-0. We knew they were playing Mexico the next day. We knew there was tiebreaker rules involved. So I can understand the questions about lineup and pitching situations. We were up against a lot of guardrails with regards to teams. The deployment of certain relievers. How many pitches they can use. Whether they can go back out. Whether they can clean up innings. And you’re just trying to piece it together in real time.”

As noted in the post above, Team USA was 3-0 heading into the game against Italy, not 2-0.

All of that may be true, but again, when you return to DeRosa’s comments on Hot Stove, it is incredibly hard to deny the certainty he seems to have about this game being meaningless to their quarterfinals advancement. He can say he “misspoke,” that he was “overly confident,” or that there are “false narratives” about him, but his quotes are his quotes, and they don’t provide room for those explanations.

If we assume DeRosa really did think Team USA had already qualified, he could have come clean afterward and admitted the gaffe straight-up. He would have taken some hard lumps, but it would have been honest.

If we take DeRosa at his word that he didn’t actually think Team USA had already qualified, he sounds like a lunatic for what he said on Hot Stove. He openly said on the program that he was going to “get some guys off their feet” during the Italy game and implied he wanted to give a pitcher a start because he liked him, not because it was the best strategy.

The more DeRosa discusses his initial comments, the more confusing he makes it. And, to return to the quote up top, he peels back another layer of doubt about what people should take away from it all.