USA Baseball Announces 2024 18U National Team Roster

CARY, NC – USA Baseball today announced the roster for the 2024 18U National Team following the 18U National Team Training Camp in Cary, North Carolina. The 20-player roster will compete in the 2024 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U-18 Baseball World Cup Americas Qualifier in Panama City, Panama, August 2-11.

“After a highly competitive training camp, we are delighted to announce our final selection of twenty players,” said the 18U national team manager Rick Eckstein. “We believe we have assembled a roster that is built to win and represent the United States well in international competition. We will spend the next week and a half preparing ourselves as best we can to win a gold medal in Panama.”

The 2024 roster includes four Team USA alumni. Grady Emerson will play for a national team for the third consecutive year after appearing on the 15U National Teams in each of the last two seasons. Emerson will be joined by a pair of teammates from the 2022 WBSC U-15 Baseball World Cup title team, as Ethan Vacation And Brady Murrietta were appointed to the 18U selection this year. In addition, 2019 12U alumni were Gavin Fien earned a spot on the 20-player team.

Including Emerson, Holliday and Murrietta, a total of eight players on the list have previously participated in a USA Baseball development program. Two-time participant in the USA Baseball National Team Development Program Kayson Cunningham is one of six players who participated in the National Team Development Program (NTDP) last summer, along with Holliday, Jordan MartinMurrietta, Cooper RummelAnd Quentin de Jong. Cunningham, Emerson, Fien, Murrietta and Young also all have experience with USA Baseball’s 13U/14U Athlete Development Program (ADP).

The final 18U National Team roster was announced following the 18U National Team Training Camp held July 17-21 in Cary, North Carolina. This year’s camp featured five days of intrasquad competition, on-field workouts, Prospect Development Pipeline (PDP) athletic evaluations and more. Eighty-four players attended the Training Camp and were coached by an all-star cast including former major leaguers. Rick Ankiel, Michael McKenry, Doug Mientkiewicz, Tim Raines Jr., Jeff Reboulet, Brian SchneiderAnd Stephen Strasbourg.

2024 18U National Team Selection

(Name; Position; Place of residence)

Ethin Bingaman; RHP; Redlands, California.
^Kayson Cunningham; INF; San Antonio, Texas
Slater de Brun; VAN; Buig, Or.
*^Grady Emerson; INF; Argyle, Texas
*^Gavin Fien; INF; Temecula, California.
Trent Grindlinger; C; Huntington Beach, California.
Josh Hammond; RHP; High Point, NC
*^Ethan Holliday; INF; Stillwater, Okla.
Brayden Jaksa; INF/OF; Fremont, California.
^Jordan Martin; RHP; Jefferson City, Mo.
Xavier Mitchell; left-handed; Garland, Texas
*^Brady Murrietta; C; Yorba Linda, California.
Josh Owens; INF/RHP; Jonesborough, Tenn.
Nico Partida; INF/RHP; Manvel, Texas
^Cooper Rummel; RHP; Austin, Texas
Aiden Stillman; left-handed; Winter Park, Florida.
Austin Weiss; left-handed; Rockville, Maryland.
Eli Williams; INF; Fort Cobb, Okla.
Dylan Wood; RHP; Elk Grove, California.
^Quentin Young; INF; Camarillo, California.

* denotes USA Baseball alumni
^ denotes participant in the USA Baseball Development Program