Brewers' connection to Team Brazil's 2026 WBC roster comes at the strangest time

The World Baseball Classic is a premier international tournament that delivers not only high-level baseball, but also a chance for fans to reconnect with players’ and coaches' ties to specific organizations. In fact, Reviewing the Brew’s own Owen Jonas compiled an impressive list highlighting more than 50 of those WBC connections to the Milwaukee Brewers.

Among those identified was pitcher Daniel Missaki, who will be a member of Team Brazil. Interestingly, his name was just all over the news when Freddy Peralta was traded to the New York Mets, as Missaki was one of the three pitchers Milwaukee acquired from Seattle in the Adam Lind trade, alongside Peralta and Carlos Herrera.

Team Brazil's Daniel Missaki was included in the trade that initially brought Freddy Peralta to Milwaukee

Missaki’s spot on Brazil’s roster draws attention to a lesser-known piece of a franchise-altering trade that took place over a decade ago. Had Peralta not been traded to the Mets last month, thus making his name surface in the media again, this former Brewers connection might have gone largely unnoticed in this year's WBC.

Perhaps even more unusual than this timing coincidence is that according to Missaki’s Baseball Reference page, he never appeared in a game while in Milwaukee's organization, missing all 2016 due to Tommy John surgery and spending the entirety of 2017 on the 60-day injured list. After that, he has no recorded stats in the minors, Japan, or any other international league until 2021, when he began a three-season stint in Japan before returning to the minor leagues in 2024 as a member of the Chicago Cubs.

Since coming back to affiliated baseball in the United States, Missaki recently latched on with the Texas Rangers, spending last season in Double-A. He threw 74 innings as a swingman and posted a 4.38 ERA.

While the timing of Peralta’s trade brought Missaki’s name back into the spotlight, it underscores baseball’s global reach, and how players with even brief or historical ties to Milwaukee can unexpectedly surface again. Now thanks to that, Missaki will be one player Brewers fans can monitor throughout the WBC.