Just a week ago, USA Baseball announced the 30-man roster for the 2023 World Baseball Classic during a two-hour MLB Tonight show on MLB Network. While the roster has undergone a few minor changes since then, Team USA has put together a strong contender in the hopes of defending their title after the USA beat Puerto Rico 8-0 back in 2017 in the last World Baseball Classic.
The roster will feature 15 pitchers and 15 hitters. As it currently stands, the USA roster has 19 MLB All-Stars, 11 Silver Slugger Award winners, seven World Series Champions, four Gold Glove winners, four MVPs, three Rookies of the Year, and one Cy Young Award winner.
“Using the word impressive to describe the collection of talent and accolades on this World Baseball Classic roster may be an understatement,” said Paul Seiler, USA Baseball’s Executive Director/CEO. “This team is laden with experience, and we are excited to welcome Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt back for this year’s World Baseball Classic. We will look to them to lead a balanced group of USA Baseball alumni and newcomers as we look to bring home another gold medal from this event.”
Arenado and Goldschmidt return from the 2017 champion USA team along with fellow alums Daniel Bard, Lance Lynn, Kyle Schwarber, Mike Trout, Kyle Tucker, Trea Turner, and Bobby Witt Jr.
New York will be represented by four Mets players and one Yankee: Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, Adam Ottavino, and Brooks Raley of the Mets and Kyle Higashioka of the Yankees. Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes Jr. was set to participate but had to pull out due to a hamstring injury.
However, there will be a former Yankee great on the team as USA Baseball will have Andy Pettite serving as their pitching coach. He will be a part of a staff that features Mark DeRosa as manager, Jerry Manuel and Brian McCann as bench coaches, and the great Ken Griffey Jr. as the hitting coach.
USA will begin its title defense with first-round games as part of Pool C at…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply