Nine Pittsburgh Pirates Players Named To World Baseball Classic Rosters

Rosters for this spring’s World Baseball Classic were announced on Wednesday evening, and the Pittsburgh Pirates will have nine players in the tournament.

This year, the World Baseball Classic will take place March 6th through the 22nd. Rosters for the tournament were released on Wednesday evening and nine members of the Pittsburgh Pirates organization will take part in the World Baseball Classic.

Due to these, these nine players will miss much of Spring Training. Even though that is not necessarily a good thing, at least they will still be taking part in baseball activities. Especially those who start for their respective countries.

The nine members of the Pirate organization to be named to World Baseball Classic rosters include the team’s starting outfield. Outfielders Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco will play for the Dominican Republic. Meanwhile, Andrew McCutchen will be on Team USA.

Two other players currently on the 40-man roster will join the Pirates’ outfields in the World Baseball Classic. These two players are catcher Francisco Cervelli and pitcher Ivan Nova. Cervelli will catch for Team Italy, while Nova is in the DR’s pitcher’s pool.

Due to being in their pitcher’s pool, Nova will not be on the DR’s roster to start the tournament. However, if they chose to do so, they will be able to pull Nova up to the team’s roster in later rounds.

Four Pirate Minor League players will join these five players in the World Baseball Classic. These four players are third baseman Eric Wood (Team Canada), relief pitcher Jared Lakind (Team Israel), pitcher Luis Escobar (Team Columbia), and pitcher Sam Street (Team Australia).

Jung Ho Kang was originally supposed to be part of Team South Korea, however, this changed after his tumultuous offseason.

Next: Kang To Enter Treatment Program

Personally, I am not a fan of Pittsburgh Pirates players taking part in the World Baseball Classic. If I were a Major League general manager, I would try and talk my players out of playing in the WBC.

In my opinion, it is nothing but an avoidable injury risk. While, yes, players could also be injured in Spring Training games, they do not play the entire game, nor do they play everyday.

I am extremely opposed to my team’s pitchers pitching in the WBC. In the 2013 WBC two Pittsburgh Pirates pitchers, Jason Grilli and Wandy Rodriguez, pitched in the tournament and both spent time on the disabled list in 2013.

Hopefully, all the Pirate players taking part in the World Baseball Classic perform well. But, more importantly, hopefully they all remain healthy and are ready to help lead the Pirates back to the postseason in 2017.