1. The Mets’ first official workout of spring training will be next Wednesday, but shortly thereafter will come the inevitable feel of the team’s complex in Port St. Lucie, Florida, turning into something of a ghost town. With as many as 12 Mets players headed to the World Baseball Classic, which will take place from March 8-21, manager Buck Showalter is bracing for a potentially abbreviated look at the team he plans to deploy on Opening Day.
2. “We are excited and proud that they are going, but they can’t come back and be way behind,” Showalter said Tuesday. “You worry when guys start their clock up that quickly, but [the WBC] is good for the game, I am told, and that is the bottom line. It enhances our game globally and I support it, but I am looking at it selfishly from what’s best for the New York Mets.”
3. St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado hopped on to a Zoom availability Tuesday afternoon where he detailed representing Team USA in the upcoming World Baseball Classic, baseball’s version of the World Cup, a tournament that occurs every few years with 20 international teams facing off.
・Have you heard of the World Baseball Classic? What do you know about it?
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4. “I feel like the hype is a little bit higher this time around than it was in 2017” stated Arenado. “The best players on the biggest stage and that’s what we want and part of this is to grow the game and you want the best players participating so it’s exciting.”
5. That hype Arenado referred to is a big shoe to fill, and in order to keep the momentum going, they’re making sure MLB stars are put on display. Back in 2017, the last time the WBC occurred, the ratings from MLB Network were huge: 1.4 million viewers to be exact, which was the channel’s highest number for a non-MLB playoff game. Arenado’s Cardinals teammates first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and pitcher Adam Wainwright (both of whom will also represent Team USA) joined the conversation. They said these games are huge for the sport.
6. This time around, the international teams are pulling out all the stops. Two-way phenomenon Shohei Ohtani will represent Team Japan and his Los Angeles Angels teammate, 10-time All-Star and three-time AL MVP Mike Trout recently announced he would represent Team USA. Team Dominican Republic will have Seattle Mariners star Julio Rodríguez manning the outfield while Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays will play at first base.
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7. “It’s great for the game of baseball,” Goldschmidt said when asked about the big names participating. “That’s what it came down to is in 2017 it was great. I mean, the games were amazing. They were tight games, there were extra-inning games, there was a lot of energy from the fans and excitement and you know, the best players on the biggest stage and that’s what we want and part of this is to grow the game and you want the best players participating so it’s exciting.”
8. All 20 rosters for the 2023 WBC will be exclusively revealed on MLB Network Thursday, February 9th at 6 p.m., ET, in an effort to begin the build towards the tournament. This year’s tournament begins on March 8th and ends with the Championship Game in Miami, Florida on March 21st. It’s the first World Baseball Classic in six years as the planned tournament for 2021 was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
9. This is the fifth installment of the tournament and the first time the field has expanded to 20 teams with the defending champion Team USA facing Great Britain in Phoenix, Arizona at Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Prior to that, Team USA will play in a pair of exhibition games against the San Francisco Giants and the Angels. Seventeen-year veteran Wainwright said representing the USA in the WBC was a bucket list item for him. He said he had never been asked before, so his exposure to the tournament was exactly how fans consumed it as well.
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