The baseball gods aren’t big on second chances, but they decided to smile on Team USA on Wednesday night, when Italy soundly beat Mexico to help the Americans avoid elimination at the World Baseball Classic. What would have been a near-existential collapse is instead a date in the quarterfinals against Canada, with all of their goals still in front of them.

No one is thanking their lucky stars quite as vigorously as manager Mark DeRosa, who was on the verge of becoming a national punchline after he badly mismanaged the U.S. loss to Italy — after apparently not even knowing that his team had yet to secure their spot in the knockout stage. But DeRosa’s reprieve is short-lived; on Friday, the Americans will be back on the hot seat, expected to handle a Canadian team that boasts a ton of MLB talent.

If Team USA doesn’t snap out of its funk, all that good luck will have been wasted. And while DeRosa isn’t the only one who needs to take a long look in the mirror, he’ll be the one taking the blame if the Americans fall short of their goals. The good news is that this team is still spectacularly talented, and more than capable of winning it all if their manager gets out of the way.

Play your best players, all the time

One of the reasons why DeRosa’s comments before the Italy game kicked up such ire among American fans is that, well, he’s been managing like his team is at no risk of going home — or that these are glorified exhibition games rather than the World Cup of baseball. 

How else do you explain DeRosa’s seeming obsession with making sure everyone on his roster gets to play? Respectfully, this isn’t the Little League World Series; Paul Goldschmidt and Ernie Clement, while valuable bench pieces, do not need to be seeing the field ahead of guys like Gunnar Henderson, Alex Bregman and Bryce Harper. 

There’s a clear hierarchy here, with Harper at first, Bregman or Brice Turang at second, Bobby Witt Jr. at short, Henderson at third, Roman Anthony in left, Byron Buxton or Pete Crow-Armstrong (depending on platoon advantage) in center, Aaron Judge in right and Kyle Schwarber at DH. Stop messing around and start managing this tournament like your life depends on every game. 

Drop Bryce Harper down in the lineup

Speaking of Harper: He hasn’t exactly disproven the Phillies’ belief that he’s lost a tick or two on his swing. The former MVP has a dreadful XXX OPS during the WBC, and the at-bats look as bad as the numbers. 

And yet, DeRosa is still treating him with the deference due the name of the back of the jersey. Harper is still a very good hitter, and I’m not trying to bury him at age 33. But he’s clearly struggling to find it right now, and as long as that remains the case, there’s no argument for putting him at the top of the order between Witt Jr. and Judge. 

That real estate is too valuable to waste, and the need for crooked numbers too great against powerhouse lineups like the Dominican Republic and Japan (if the Americans can even get that far). Schwarber and Henderson both feel like excellent fits in that spot, with Anthony in back of Judge. 

Manage your pitching staff with more urgency

I do have some sympathy for DeRosa here. Pitcher participation in the WBC has been a sore spot for the tournament’s entire existence, and MLB teams will only consent to their arms taking part if they’re given assurances as to how they’ll be used over these two weeks. DeRosa would surely love to start Tarik Skubal more than once (and probably not against a team like Great Britain), and he’s surely under strict orders as to how much and when he can use members of his bullpen.

But even with all of those caveats, he didn’t exactly cover himself in glory during the Italy game, allowing Ryan Yarbrough and Brad Keller to turn a 3-0 game into an 8-0 blowout. Team USA is getting fresh reinforcements for the knockout rounds, and DeRosa needs to be much more aggressive about matching his best pitchers with the highest-leverage spots. 

No one’s advocating for letting Mason Miller or David Bednar throw 40 pitches in mid-March. But these single-elimination games can be decided with one rally in the fifth or sixth innings, even when your lineup is as formidable as the U.S. is. 

Instill some swagger, for god’s sake

This is admittedly more of a vibes-based argument, but I’m confident that anyone who watched not just the Italy game but all of pool play will understand what I mean. While teams like the D.R., Japan, Venezuela and Puerto Rico have relished this opportunity, Team USA appears to be going through the motions, looking very much like a group of guys who just got together last week and have one eye on returning to spring training and getting ready for the season to come.

Of course, that’s what they are, and I empathize. But also: This is what you signed up for. All of these players watched the 2023 tournament and were determined to be a part of the next one, but now that it’s here, they sure seem to be having second thoughts. DeRosa needs to find a way to bring this group together, and to get them playing freely and with fire. I don’t need Aaron Judge to take 40 seconds to round the bases like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (though I wouldn’t complain), but I do need everyone to start treating this like October — and then some.