Yadi Molina Hopes To Guide Team Puerto Rico To First Title In World Baseball Classic

Yadier Molina, looking more paunchy than he did during his heyday as catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, made several unexpected trips to the mound Thursday as TeamTISI
Puerto Rico played the Atlanta Braves in an exhibition game at CoolToday Park in North Port, FL.

Together with brother Jose, who served as the team’s first base coach, the Molinas hope to parlay pitching and defense into Puerto Rico’s first WBC championship.

The round-robin, double-elimination tournament, now in its fifth installment, features 20 teams, up four from its last incarnation in 2017. Rosters are composed mainly of major-leaguers taking a break from spring training for as long as their WBC teams stay alive.

Japan won the first version, in 2006, and the second, held three years later, but the Dominican Republic won in 2013 and the United States in 2017.

Then the tournament was suspended as baseball battled the invasion of Covid-19, even shutting down spring training in 2020 and cutting the regular season from 162 to 60 games.

If pitching were the only barometer of team success, the Molinas would be sitting pretty. Their starters include Jose Berrios, Marcus Stroman, and Dereck Rodriguez, who started against Atlanta, but their bullpen may be the best in the tournament.

Closer Edwin Diaz and brother Alexis are top guns along with Jorge Lopez and Emilio Pagan.

After that, recognizable names on the roster range from infielders Francisco Lindor and Javy Baez to outfielder Eddie Rosario, infielder-outfielder Kiki Hernandez, and catchers Martin Maldonado, Christian Valdez, and MJ Melendez. The catching trio alone accounted for 42 home runs in the majors last season.

Pool play began in Taiwan, Japan, Phoenix, and Miami, with quarter-finals scheduled for Tokyo and Miami, and both semi-finals and the championship game in South Florida as well. The tournament stretches from March 8-21.

Puerto Rico, along with the other WBC teams, has a 30-man roster. But no more than 15 players are permitted from any one major-league club.

Molina and Edwin Diaz took questions from a Spanish-speaking media contingent prior to the Thursday game against the Braves. Nobody dared to ask the retired Cardinals catcher whether he missed getting ready for the season as a player.

Molina, who played exclusively for St. Louis, spent 19 seasons in the big leagues and is considered a shoo-in for the Baseball Hall of Fame four years from now, along with long-time teammate Albert Pujols.

The Braves won the Thursday game, 9-0, with a 15-hit attack against a parade of pitchers for Puerto Rico.

One day earlier, with a team of rookies playing, Atlanta lost to Team Dominican Republic by the same score. Traditional baseball rules were used, rather than the new ones introduced by Major League Baseball this spring.

That meant no pitch clock, which annoyed Atlanta manager Brian Snitker. “I like it,” he said from his golf cart in front of the Braves dugout. “It’s really made the game faster and that’s definitely a good thing.”

Games involving WBC opponents don’t count in Grapefruit League standings or statistics, which don’t count for anything anyway. But they do help veterans on the mend or rookies trying to win jobs catch the eye of their managers.

Baseball’s version of the World Cup, the WBC gives foreign-born players (and those whose heritage or religion aligns) a chance to play for their countries – and make bonus money to boot. Although salaries are not revealed, the enthusiasm of the athletes is unmistakable.

At the same time, major-league managers were wary of injury – and of seeing key players depart just when they’re trying to cut varsity rosters to 26 by Opening Day, which falls on March 30 this year.

Mets manager Buck Showalter said he told Team USA manager Mark DeRosa, a former player himself, to take care of his players and not return any of them in any state of injury.

One of those players, flame-throwing closer Edwin Diaz, has just received a five-year, $102 million contract that makes him the highest-paid relief pitcher in baseball history.