The World Baseball Classic is truly baseball at its finest, the game’s international stars coming together and blessing us with the most entertaining, electric, and downright legendary performances, and the last tournament was a prime example of that.
Trea Turner broke the tournament record for home runs representing the stars and stripes, Randy Arozarena batted .450 and led team Mexico on an unbelievable run upsetting powerhouse Puerto Rico, and a storybook ending with Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani striking out his then Angels teammate and Team USA Captain Mike Trout to claim Japan’s 2nd WBC title.
This year’s tournament, however, may not have such amazing performances because this WBC will be missing some of the sport’s biggest stars, not because they don’t want to represent their countries, but rather because their Major League Clubs refuse to let them play. For any other sport, this would be ridiculous. You don’t hear about Real Madrid telling Mbabbe he can’t play in the World Cup, or the Nuggets keeping Nikola Jokic from representing his country at the Olympics, so why are MLB teams keeping their players from playing on baseball’s biggest stage? Well, it comes down to two things, the first being the potential injury risk that comes with playing in the tournament. The poster example of this was when the Mets star closer Edwin Diaz suffered a season ending injury while representing Puerto Rico, costing the Mets their closer in a season the Mets intended to make a run to the World Series.
Playing in a 5-7 game tournament is nothing in terms of “injury risk” compared to the wear and tear that comes with playing a 162-game regular season. Funnily enough, many MLB teams are still behind the curve when it comes to modern medical practices. Some teams, like the Rockies, for example, don’t even have strength or recovery programs for their players. So it’s interesting that MLB teams don’t care for their players’ health during the 9-month-long season, but are very concerned with their health and safety during a 2-week-long tournament. The other issue MLB teams have with the WBC is, of all things, insurance. Players are required to have insurance in case they get hurt playing in the WBC, covering their salary. MLB partnered with an insurance company to determine whether or not a player is insurable based on injury history or possible injury risk.
With weeks to go before the start of the WBC, they have already ruled out dozens of big-name players. Issac Paredes, the cornerstone at 3rd base for Mexico, denied. Mike Trout, the captain of Team USA in the last tournament, denied. Jose Altuve, one of Venezuela’s best middle infielders, was denied. All of these players were vital to their countries rosters last tournament, and this time they are being sidelined because of corporate greed. This has become such a problem that Puerto Rico has considered backing out of the tournament because so many of their players have been denied insurance. Francisco Lindor, the captain of Team Puerto Rico, was denied, along with fellow star Shortstop Carlos Correa, leaving the team without its best players up the middle. It came to the point that Bad Bunny stepped in and paid for Lindor & Correa’s insurance, but it was all for not because their clubs still refused to let them participate.
Greedy Major League teams are keeping baseball’s biggest stars from playing on the world’s biggest stage, but not only are the players being robbed, but we, the fans, are being robbed, as MLB teams are cheating us out of dozens of unforgettable performances and battles between the sport’s finest. While Billionaire MLB owners save a penny to their fortunes, the rest of us get a subpar product. Without the star players that make these magic moments happen, the WBC will never reach the heights of 2023, and we must not let greedy Major League owners suck the soul and talent out of this tournament. While they may be paying these players millions out of their precious billions, that does not give them the right to hold them back from competing for something worth more than any World Series title. For the sake of the tournament, the players, the fans, and the game of baseball, just let them play.
