Braves News: Several Braves to participate in the World Baseball Classic

The World Baseball Classic will make its return for the first tournament since the United States won it in 2017. The fifth installment of the international tournament is set to begin on March 8, and conclude with the championship game on March 21st at LoanDepot Park. While the Atlanta Braves won’t have anyone suiting up with the red, white, and blue, they will have a couple outfielders getting ABs with other countries.

There was some speculation on if Braves superstar, Ronald Acuña Jr. would be allowed by the team to participate in the WBC, but the Braves thought it best to allow Ronald to play in the tournament as they have no intentions on setting limitations for their best player. Acuña Is coming off a down year (by his standards) and one in which he was never truly 100% healthy after the 2021 ACL injury. There’s no doubt the Braves have done their due diligence in making sure there is no concerns with the knee before signing off on Acuña‘s participation in the WBC.

Ronald will look to lead team Venezuela out of Pool D, where he will face off against the other notable Brave in the WBC, Eddie Rosario. 2022 was a down year as well for Rosario, who batted with a vision problem in the early portion of the year, before eventually getting laser eye surgery. Even after the surgery Rosario never really fully bounced back, so getting some ABs in a more competitive environment during March won’t be the worst thing for him.

Although the WBC takes place during spring training, the feel to these games will be anything but normal season preparation. Ultimately guys want to be gearing up for a strong regular season, but as competitors they cannot help but match the intensity these tournament games provide. I mean I can’t think of any spring training games that produce a reaction from both the crowd and players like the one seen below.

The Braves also have some pitchers in their organization that could see some action for a few countries: Luis De Avila, LHP (COL), Roel Ramirez, RHP (MEX), Alan Rangel, RHP (MEX), Yacksel Ríos, RHP (PUR). Braves catcher, Chadwick Tromp, is also listed on the Netherlands roster.

In the Braves coaching side of news, former All-Star catcher and Braves legend, Brian McCann, will serve as team USA bench coach to manger Mark DeRosa.

We’ll be watching and cheering for all our Braves in the WBC, and we will hope for more moments like the one Chipper provided Braves fans a long time ago.