Long Island to the WBC: The journey of MLB pitchers Harrison Cohen and Greg Weissert

Harrison Cohen always believed in himself, but he admitted he’d “probably have to be pinched” if he told his high school self where he is now.

Greg Weissert has established himself as a reliable big-league reliever as he enters his fifth MLB season, but as he was coming through the ranks he “really never thought about” the opportunity ahead of him.

Both Long Island natives and righthanded pitchers will compete in the World Baseball Classic for the first time this month. Cohen, 26, a Syosset native who is in his first big-league camp with the Yankees, will pitch for Team Israel. The Red Sox’s Weissert, 31, from Bay Shore, is on Team Italy’s roster.

“I've heard so many great things about the experience,” Cohen told Newsday. “The opportunity to represent, not only how I was raised and my family, but just to be able to represent Team Israel – I'm very proud of that. I'm very proud of my Judaism and my heritage and how I was brought up and how I was raised.

“So having the opportunity to put that jersey on and compete in the World Baseball Classic is obviously a very exciting thing for me and my family.”

Said Weissert: “I'm so pumped. I hear all the guys that have played in it before. They say it's the most incredible baseball. It's so fun. People are on their feet. It’s loud the whole game. I'm super pumped and super pumped to rep Italy.”

Weissert, the Yankees’ 18th-round pick in 2016, spent his first two MLB seasons in the Bronx. In December 2023, he was traded to Boston as part of the package that brought Alex Verdugo to the Yankees. Weissert had the best season of his career in 2025 with the Red Sox, going 6-6 with four saves, a 2.82 ERA, 1.164 WHIP and 57 strikeouts in 67 innings (72 games).

But his road to the WBC can be traced to his Yankees roots. Ron Marinaccio, currently with the Padres, was Weissert’s Yankees teammate. Marinaccio, who was supposed to pitch in the 2023 WBC for Italy before getting injured, told Weissert that he should pursue being part of this year’s tournament and put him in touch with Team Italy.

“I was just trying to grind my way through the minors to get to the big leagues, and so I never really thought about (the WBC) too much,” said Weissert, who attended Bay Shore High School and Fordham University. “But when the opportunity came up, when Ron mentioned I should reach out to them, I was like, ‘You know what, that's a good idea. That would be so fun.’ All I've ever heard about it is great things … It should be a blast.”

Cohen, who pitched at Cold Spring Harbor High School and George Washington University, signed with the Yankees after going undrafted in 2022. He had a great minor-league season last year, going 3-2 with five saves, a 1.76 ERA, 1.098 WHIP and 59 strikeouts in 51 innings (49 games) for Double-A Somerset and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

He has gotten to know Yankees bench coach and Team Israel manager Brad Ausmus in spring training. He said the experience in big-league camp “only has solidified my drive and my desire to keep getting better, and it's only building my excitement.”

Cohen added: “All of this – big-league camp, Team Israel – everything that has been leading up to this has been all part of my journey and a part of a dream that I've had since I was a very little kid.”

Both pitchers were born on Long Island, so there was a process to represent their respective countries in the WBC. For Cohen, he had a bar mitzvah at 13, making him eligible for Team Israel. Weissert’s grandmother is 100% Italian, so his parents had to go to his grandparents’ house and sift through records, such as birth certificates, marriage certificates and anything else they could find.

Cohen, alongside fellow Yankees pitching prospect Eric Reyzelman, co-founded Together 18 in 2023 in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. They sold shirts, sweatshirts, hats, beanies and headbands to fight antisemitism and raise money for humanitarian efforts in Israel.

“We were really, really proud of the ability to do that, especially during a really, really stressful time for everybody over there,” Cohen said. “Just being able to kind of give back as much as we could was something that we really wanted to do.”

Cohen and Weissert do not have a personal relationship – there’s a four-year-plus age difference and they never were teammates – but Cohen recalled meeting Weissert while he was still with the Yankees. They have represented the Island at the pro level, and now they will get a chance to do it on the world stage.

“I know of him, of course, and kind of his path and everything,” Cohen said. “Especially being another Long Island guy, kind of following along, as I was coming up and everything. In college, too, and seeing his success.

“It's really cool to see how he's kind of progressed through his career, too. He's obviously a great pitcher and someone that represents Long Island very well.”

By Ben Dickson

benjamin.dickson@newsday.com@bendickson__

Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.