Seventy-eight All-Stars and 190 major leaguers dotted the rosters for the 20-team World Baseball Classic when they were fully unveiled on Thursday, headlined by the likes of Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and Ronald Acuna Jr.
But it was impossible to ignore who wasn’t present, most notably as it pertains to Puerto Rico, which is lined up to host one of the pool-play tournaments.
Francisco Lindor and Carlos Correa, the left-side-infield combo that has combined for eight All-Star appearances, were left off the roster after their injury histories prevented them from getting their contracts insured. Another Puerto Rican infielder, Javier Baez, was ruled ineligible for this year’s tournament by the World Baseball Softball Confederation after testing positive for marijuana during the previous event in 2023.
Pitchers Jose Berrios, Alexis Diaz and Emilio Pagan were also left off Puerto Rico’s roster due to insurance issues, as was the case for Venezuelan infielders Jose Altuve and Miguel Rojas. Mike Trout, Team USA’s captain in 2023, was deemed unlikely to be insured early in the process, a source said.
Even without Trout, Team USA, which lost to Japan in the 2023 championship, will field its most talented roster in the history of this tournament, which is in its sixth installment. Judge will headline a lineup featuring the likes of Cal Raleigh, Bobby Witt Jr. and Bryce Harper. But the biggest difference-maker will be a star-studded pitching staff fronted by Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes, widely considered the world’s two best starters.
Ohtani, who struck out Trout to seal the title three years ago, won’t pitch for his native country this year — though sources say he was nonetheless unlikely to be insured as a pitcher, given his two elbow surgeries — but will serve as the designated hitter. Los Angeles Dodgers teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto will instead lead the staff alongside Hiromi Itoh, who won the Cy Young equivalent in Japan last season. Japan’s roster includes six MVPs from the NPB.
The Dominican Republic, led by future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols, will boast arguably the tournament’s best lineup, with Soto, Julio Rodriguez and Fernando Tatis Jr. making up their outfield, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Manny Machado, Ketel Marte, Jeremy Pena and Junior Caminero on the infield. They’ll also bring a much-improved pitching staff from a 2023 team that did not make it out of pool play, headlined by Cristopher Sanchez and Sandy Alcantara.
Even without Altuve, Venezuela, which lost to the United States in a dramatic quarterfinal game in 2023, will field a highly competitive group led by Acuna, Eugenio Suarez, Luis Arraez, Pablo Lopez and Ranger Suarez. Alejandro Kirk and Jonathan Aranda, childhood friends from their upbringing in Tijuana, will be among the faces of Team Mexico, which nearly knocked out Japan in the 2023 semifinals. Cuban-born outfielder Randy Arozarena, a fan favorite in the last tournament, will also play for Mexico.
Puerto Rico, meanwhile, will return star closer Edwin Diaz, who tore his ACL while celebrating a win in the 2023 event, and will add Nolan Arenado to a group that is nowhere near as decorated as the baseball-loving island would have hoped.
Lindor and Correa were denied coverage by NFP, the company that insures all contracts for the tournament, because they were designated as “chronic,” which triggers a further review of medical records and thus makes it less likely teams are repaid for the time one of their players miss from sustaining an injury in the WBC. NFP has introduced stricter parameters since Diaz and Altuve both suffered injuries in 2023.
Several other household names are sprinkled throughout the tournament, including Vinnie Pasquantino (Italy), Jazz Chisholm Jr. (Great Britain), Harrison Bader (Israel), Josh Naylor (Canada), Jung Hoo Lee (Korea) and Yoan Moncada (Cuba). Andruw Jones, who will be enshrined in Cooperstown this summer, will manage Team Netherlands, which features Xander Bogaerts, Jurickson Profar and Jones’ son, Druw, a former second overall pick. Dusty Baker, who could become a Hall of Famer next year, will manage Nicaragua.
This will mark the first time in WBC history that all four reigning MVPs (Judge and Ohtani) and Cy Youngs (Skenes and Skubal) will participate in the tournament.
