MLB Releases World Baseball Classic Rosters
Nolan McLean vs. Juan Soto with a championship on the line could be coming soon.
Major League Baseball released the 30-man rosters of all 20 World Baseball Classic teams Thursday, and 18 Mets (minor leaguers included) will take part in the action set to start March 5 in the Tokyo Dome (March 4 at 10 p.m. ET in the United States) when Chinese Taipei faces Australia.
McLean and Clay Holmes will represent Team USA. Soto and Huascar Brazobán will play for the Dominican Republic. Mark Vientos will play for Team Nicaragua. Daviel Hurtado, a 21-year-old lefty who advanced from Rookie Ball to Low-A St. Lucie last season, will represent Team Cuba. He pitched to a 2.06 ERA in 65 2/3 innings combined at the two levels and struck out 75. Expect him to check in around No. 30 in Mike Mayer of MMO’s prospect rankings. Minor leaguers Ben Simon, Robert Stock, Jordan Geber and Josh Blum will all play for Israel. Minor league righty Carlos Guzman, coming off his best year of professional ball, will play for Venezuela. Two other players who saw time in the majors – Alex Carillo and Jared Young – will also play in the tournament, representing Mexico and Canada, respectively. Minor league righty Daniel Duarte will join Carillo on the Team Mexico roster. Minor league outfielder Jose Ramos will play for Panama, and lefty relief prospect Jamdrick Cornelia will represent Netherlands. Lastly, speedy outfield prospect Nick Morabito will represent Italy. Former Mets lefty Johan Santana is on the coaching staff for Team Venezuela.
The tournament will feature a ton of top MLB talent: Team USA includes Aaron Judge (captain), Paul Skenes, Kyle Schwarber, Bobby Witt Jr. and Cal Raleigh. Team Dominican Republic will include Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Fernando Tatis Jr. and Sandy Alcantara. Shohei Ohtani will hit (but not pitch) for Team Japan and Salvador Perez is the Team Venezuela captain.
Pool play will take place at four locations:
- Tokyo Dome – Japan, Australia, Korea, Czechia and Chinese Taipei
- Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan – Puerto Rico, Cuba, Canada, Panama, Colombia
- Daikin Park in Houston – United States, Mexico, Italy, Great Britain and Brazil
- loanDepot park in Miami -Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Netherlands, Israel and Nicaragua
The five teams will play each other once, and the top two teams from each pool will advance to the quarterfinals. A series of tiebreakers will be used if necessary, starting with head-to-head, moving on to formulas involving runs, and ending with the drawing of lots.
Teams advancing from Tokyo will go to Miami, and teams that make it through San Juan will move on to Houston. The semifinals and finals will be in Miami, with the title game set for March 17. The games will be available to stream on FOX Media.
The top four teams from each pool automatically qualify for the next WBC. Each last-place team will be relegated and have to qualify for the next tournament.
Francisco Lindor, who planned to captain Team Puerto Rico, will sit out after insurers denied to cover him since he had a cleanup procedure on his elbow after the 2025 season. About 10 players from Team Puerto Rico were also denied coverage.
“The situation has been nothing but confusing and it’s been kind of a problem for the players that are being denied to play just because of an insurance problem,” Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas said on Foul Territory.
Anyone 37 or older was denied coverage and Rojas turns 37 on Feb. 24. He believes an exception could have been made for him because ince 2024 he has only missed games for injury because of a sports hernia, he plans to retire after the 2026 season and he is making $5 million this year, an amount low enough where the insurance should not have been an issue.
“I don’t think this tournament is going to go anywhere if they are going to continue to make it harder for players to go,” he said.
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