Top Menu

Spring training diversions: World Baseball Classic

World Baseball ClassicThe World Baseball Classic returns next month, and between stars spending time away from their teams in camp and international visitors hitting Florida and Arizona, your March experiences will likely be impacted.

The Classic was last held in 2017, with a 2021 edition postponed to 2023 due to COVID-19 concerns. While there are plenty of international baseball competitions, the World Baseball Classic is arguably the highest-profile of them all, with international stars and future Hall of Famers taking the field in virtually every game.

And this year will be no different. We’re already seeing a plethora of high-profile stars commit to the WBC in 2023. For the United States team, Mike Trout, J.T. Realmuto, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Bryce Harper, Mookie Betts, Tim Anderson and Paul Goldschmidt will all appear in the lineup.

There are fewer MLB stars on foreign rosters, but there are plenty of solid players set to participate: Xander Bogaerts and Didi Gregorius (The Netherlands); Yoán Moncada (Cuba); Brandon Nimmo (Italy); Yu Darvish and Shohei Ohtani (Japan); Julio Urías, Alex Verdugo and Rowdy Tellez (Mexico); José Berríos, Marcus Stroman, Javier Báez and Francisco Lindor (Puerto Rico); Miguel Cabrera. José Altuve, Gleyber Torres and Martín Pérez (Venezuela); Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Juan Soto, Julio Rodriguez, Manny Machado, Sandy Alcantara, and Jorge Polanco (Dominican Republic); and Joc Pederson (Israel). And, undoubtedly, we’ll see a whole new set of stars emerge during play. Not all these players will end up on the field between injuries and team concerns, however; just yesterday we saw the Twins’ Carlos Correa withdraw a commitment to take the field for Puerto Rico. This was for family reasons: his wife, Daniella is due with the couple’s second child at the beginning of play in March.

There will be several ways to see your favorites, as the following countries will train at the following American sites:

  • Team USA: at the San Francisco Giants, Scottsdale
  • Team Canada: at the Chicago Cubs, Mesa
  • Team Great Britain: at the Milwaukee Brewers, Phoenix
  • Team Colombia: at the Oakland Athletics, Mesa
  • Team Mexico: at the Arizona Diamondbacks, Scottsdale
  • Team Dominican Republic: at the Minnesota Twins, Lee County Sports Complex
  • Team Israel: at the Miami Marlins, Jupiter
  • Team Puerto Rico: at the Boston Red Sox, JetBlue Park
  • Team Venezuela: at the Houston Astros, West Palm Beach
  • Team Nicaragua: at MLB’s Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach

There are also plenty of exhibitions between MLB teams and country squads during spring training—some 21 in all. Check out our Grapefruit League and Cactus League master schedules for the full listings for March 8-9 games in both Florida and Arizona.

After those exhibitions, play in the WBC starts for real. Pools C and D will be played in the United States: Pool C (which includes Mexico, United States and Colombia) games are set for Phoenix’s Chase Field, while Pool D (Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua and Israel) games are set for Miami’s loanDepot park on March 11-15. The quarterfinals, semifinals and finals are set for loanDepot park as well.

You can find tickets for the March 11-21 World Baseball Classic games in loanDepot Park and Chase Field hereYou can see the full schedule of games here.

This article originally appeared in the Spring Training Online newsletter. Are you a subscriber? Sign up here!

, , ,

Comments are closed.