WBC Rosters Unveiled: A Plethora of Current and Former Twins to Watch

[Thiéres Rabelo]

On Thursday evening, all twenty World Baseball Classic rosters were unveiled live on MLB Network. The amount of talent is scary good, with this having the potential to be the best WBC yet. The rosters are filled with current and former Twins that will represent their countries this year. 

Image courtesy of Thiéres Rabelo (graphics)

Second to Team USA, Minnesotans might look at Puerto Rico fondly during this edition of the WBC, as seven of the ten current Twins, plus four former ones will be playing the event for the Borícua team. Relievers Emilio Pagán, Jorge López, José de León, Dereck Rodríguez and Jovani Morán, catcher Christian Vázquez, and infielder José Miranda are the current Twins on Team Puerto Rico. Former Twins José Berríos and Hector Santiago and outfielder Eddie Rosario are also on the squad. In addition, the team's pitching coach, Ricky Bones, who spent about five months in early 1998 in the Twins organization. 

Back-to-back runners-up, the Puerto Ricans could even have another Twin in Carlos Correa, but the superstar shortstop opted not to take part in this year’s edition as his wife is expected to give birth to the couple’s second child during the competition. But despite also having names like Francisco Lindor, Javier Báez, and Martín Maldonado, Puerto Rico won’t have an easy life in Pool D, as another team full of former Twins will fight them for one of the two spots in the quarterfinals.

Venezuela is another strong team in the group, and despite having only one current Twin, he’s perhaps the team’s ace, Pablo López. Four former Twins will join him. Fan favorites Luis Arráez and Eduardo Escobar in the infield and Jhoulys Chacín (pitched in spring training 2020 before the pandemic and was cut in July, just before the season started) and Martín Pérez in the pitching staff. Also, the Venezuelan coaching staff includes Twins assistant pitching coach Luis Ramírez and long-time Twins minor-league manager, currently with the Wichita Wind Surge, Ramón Borrego. Former Twins minor-league pitching coach Ivan Arteaga is the team's pitching coach.

With names like José Altuve, Ronald Acuña Jr., and Salvador Pérez, among others, Venezuela the main competition to Puerto Rico for the second spot in the group. I said “second” because one other team is considered by many to be the pool’s favorite. The Dominican Republic doesn’t have a single current Twin. However, former Minnesota sluggers Gary Sánchez and Nelson Cruz, who's also the team manager. Still, they’ll be one of the most exciting teams in the tournament, with players like Sandy Alcántara, Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Rafael Devers, Manny Machado, and more. Only a tragedy would keep the Dominicans out of the quarterfinals.

There are several other current Minnesota Twins (or Twins minor leaguers) in the competition. Newcomer Carlos Luna will be playing for Panama, and prized-prospect Édouard Julien, for Team Canada. Joining the latter is former Twins pitcher Andrew Albers. Seven other former Twins will also be fighting for the world title: pitchers Lance Lynn and Ryan Pressly will play for Team USA. In addition, reliever Brooks Raley spent much of the 2014 season on the Twins 40-man roster, and Jason Adam was the player acquired from the Royals for Josh Willingham in 2014. 

Two infielders who had short stints with Minnesota, Andrelton Simmons and Jonathan Schoop will represent The Kingdom of the Netherlands. So will former pitcher Shairon Martis. Former Twins first base/outfield prospect Zander Wiel will also be on the team. Their pitching coach will again be Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven. 

Last year’s fan favorite Gio Urshela will represent Colombia, alongside reliever Jhon Romero, who pitched in four games in a Twins uniform early last season. The Twins long had a pipeline in Australia. There are five former Twins minor leaguers on Team Australia including Aaron Whitefield who spent some time with the Twins in 2020. The others include infielder Logan Wade and pitchers Todd Van Steensel, Tim Atherton and Josh Guyer. 

Great Britain is in the tournament this year. On their roster include former Twins pitchers Ian Gibaut and Vance Worley. Tyler Viza pitched for Wichita and St. Paul early in the 2022 season before being released. In addition, Antoan Richardson stole 39 bases between New Britain and Rochester in 2013. He is the team's bench coach. 

Slugger ByungHo Park, who played for the Twins in 62 games during the 2016 season, will represent his home country of South Korea. Several former Twins minor leaguers will also be participating in Pool A or Pool B in the first round. For Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) pitchers Chi-Wei Hu and Kai-Wei Teng, as well as Saints infielder Tzu-Wei Lin will participate. The team representing China will include former minor leaguer Ray Chang.  

Team Israel will include former Twins third baseman Danny Valencia, along with pitcher Zack Weiss who spent a little time in Double-A and Triple-A in the Twins system in 2019. In maybe a fun story, 35-year-old Jakub Hajtmar is competing with the team from the Czech Republic. He played in 33 games for the GCL Twins in 2008. 

The WBC will take place from March 8 until March 21, with the four pools having a different host city: Taichung, Taiwan, for Pool A; Tokyo, Japan, for Pool B; Phoenix, USA, for Pool C; and Miami, USA, for Pool D. Below is a picture of the competition structure, with the four pools and the bracket all the way to the final. Who do you think is going to win it all?

 

 

 

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[theBOMisthebomb]

Any baseball tournament that is single elimination from the quarterfinals on is of little to no interest to me. 

[h2oface]

It is gonna be real tough for the Twins to be ready for the start of the season with so many playing in this tourney.

[davidborton]

Looking forward to be in Phoenix for 5 of the games:

• USA
• Canada
• England, GB
• Colombia
• Mexico

Have tix to the game where the crowd will really rock, USA/Mexico. Sold out, 48,000. Anyone who has been to Dodger Stadium knows how those who are of Mexican descent bring an added spirit to the crowd. Loud and cheerful!

¡Viva Mexico!

[rwilfong86]

I'm looking forward to watching this whole tournament.

[miracleb]

MLB Network the only way to watch this? (can it even be watched there?)

[theBOMisthebomb]

1 hour ago, miracleb said:

MLB Network the only way to watch this? (can it even be watched there?)

https://www.mlb.com/world-baseball-classic/schedule/2023-03-21

It appears to be on FS1, FS2, Fox, and Tubi. 

[Thiéres Rabelo]

8 hours ago, h2oface said:

It is gonna be real tough for the Twins to be ready for the start of the season with so many playing in this tourney.

The Twins play only one game that overlaps with the WBC, which is the season opener on March 30. Assuming Puerto Rico reaches the final game on the 31st, the worst-case scenario is that those players will simply stay in Miami to be joined by the Twins on the following Monday when the Twins start a three-game series against the Marlins.

They won't need time off after the tournament, as the WBC can just be a replacement for Spring Training. And to be honest, it can be a much better preparation than Spring Training.

[chpettit19]

I'm super excited for this! Really cool so many Twins will get to participate. There are some pretty insane lineups for the top teams. It's awesome to watch all star teams play for real, and truly care about winning. The best baseball players on the planet battling it out is the best!

[theBOMisthebomb]

41 minutes ago, Thiéres Rabelo said:

The Twins play only one game that overlaps with the WBC, which is the season opener on March 30. Assuming Puerto Rico reaches the final game on the 31st, the worst-case scenario is that those players will simply stay in Miami to be joined by the Twins on the following Monday when the Twins start a three-game series against the Marlins.

They won't need time off after the tournament, as the WBC can just be a replacement for Spring Training. And to be honest, it can be a much better preparation than Spring Training.

The WBC ends on March 21. 

[Trov]

Can anyone explain why Puerto Rico has their own team, and they do play on Team USA?  I mean territories of other countries play for their overall country.  Like Netherlands have players from Aruba, and Curacao.  Great Britain has players from Bahamas, and mostly from USA.  

To me it all makes no sense as most of the players on the non north or central American/Carribean counties are not even from those countries, outside of the Asian counties.  Like what is the point?  

[rwilfong86]

17 minutes ago, Trov said:

Can anyone explain why Puerto Rico has their own team, and they do play on Team USA?  I mean territories of other countries play for their overall country.  Like Netherlands have players from Aruba, and Curacao.  Great Britain has players from Bahamas, and mostly from USA.  

To me it all makes no sense as most of the players on the non north or central American/Carribean counties are not even from those countries, outside of the Asian counties.  Like what is the point?  

Puerto Ricans are incredibly proud of being Puerto Rican.

[h2oface]

5 hours ago, Thiéres Rabelo said:

The Twins play only one game that overlaps with the WBC, which is the season opener on March 30. Assuming Puerto Rico reaches the final game on the 31st, the worst-case scenario is that those players will simply stay in Miami to be joined by the Twins on the following Monday when the Twins start a three-game series against the Marlins.

They won't need time off after the tournament, as the WBC can just be a replacement for Spring Training. And to be honest, it can be a much better preparation than Spring Training.

We will see. Your finish date is 10 days off, so it will just affect the team coming together a bit in ST, and it is certainly debatable whether it will be a better preparation for the season. Certainly opinion. I still love the WBC, I just had no idea how many of the 40-man were actually participating. Thanks for the amazing compilation summary of the far reaching web of Twins.

[Cris E]

2 hours ago, Trov said:

Can anyone explain why Puerto Rico has their own team, and they do play on Team USA?  I mean territories of other countries play for their overall country.  Like Netherlands have players from Aruba, and Curacao.  Great Britain has players from Bahamas, and mostly from USA.  

To me it all makes no sense as most of the players on the non north or central American/Carribean counties are not even from those countries, outside of the Asian counties.  Like what is the point?  

Why give Australia and Canada teams when Great Britain has a squad? Because they have their own identity, because this isn't the Olympics at all, because it's about fun and bragging rights.

You want to get all outraged over this then go look into the "standards" that many countries are employing to engage players. Anyone even remotely Jewish can play for Isreal, which makes sense because they've had a broad definition of "nation" for 3000 years. You like Olive Garden, you can be Italian for March. You don't even need to like it, necessarily, but if one of your parents wasn't above eating there you can claim them. I saw this WW2 documentary on Netflix that mentioned the Netherlands plus Bert Blyleven circled someone in my section in 2005 so I am eligible for that squad even though my elbow gave up on baseball 40 years ago.

Best advice: take none of this seriously, revel in the joy of baseball and hope the pitchers get enough work in without anyone getting hurt.

[old nurse]

Brooks Raley and Jason Adam, though very indirect, reminded me the Twins’ castoffs provide at pipeline for the Rays bullpen.. Makes one think they should have hired a Rays FO person. Then I remember that Boston is a train wreck. Sorry for the stray thought. Back to WBC

[theBOMisthebomb]

5 hours ago, rwilfong86 said:

Puerto Ricans are incredibly proud of being Puerto Rican.

Also, the Puerto Rico team is good enough to stand on its own merits. I'm more curious why Manny Machado gets to play for the DR. Oh, his grandfather grew up in the DR. Mmmkkk. Whatever, you can't expect much from a baseball tournament that is single elimination tournament after pool play. 

[rwilfong86]

11 hours ago, theBOMisthebomb said:

Also, the Puerto Rico team is good enough to stand on its own merits. I'm more curious why Manny Machado gets to play for the DR. Oh, his grandfather grew up in the DR. Mmmkkk. Whatever, you can't expect much from a baseball tournament that is single elimination tournament after pool play. 

My wife is Puerto Rican and has lived in the USA since 2016, whenever she travels anywhere for work, and they ask her where she's from, her answer is Puerto Rico (but lives in Kansas). But yes, you're right about the quality of the team, I think their pitching is the only area where they may come intro trouble but hey have a team that can win the whole thing.

[Thiéres Rabelo]

21 hours ago, theBOMisthebomb said:

The WBC ends on March 21. 

Oh geez, my bad, I mixed up those two numbers. But the point I was making is even more true now. With the tournament ending ten days before the regular season, there are absolutely no worries about preparation. The players will get a great one at the WBC and will have some time in between to rest if they need it.