Francisco Lindor was a shortstop for Team Puerto Rico and also an unofficial ambassador for the World Baseball Classic.
The Mets standout has been effusive in his praise for the commitment, energy and passion of those who participated and just how uplifting the crowds were during the tournament.
He loved participating, can’t wait to do so again and is a carrier of the gospel to convince the best of the best to join the bandwagon in 2026.
But he knows this isn’t really a call to position players.
The best non-American position players in the world generally have played in the WBC, and once Mike Trout committed for this year, pretty much every able-bodied American positional star not named Aaron Judge enlisted as well. And the expectation — following the success of this tournament — is they will do so again in three years.
This is about convincing pitchers to join — notably American starters.
Fifteen American-born starters received Cy Young Award votes last year. Just one, Nestor Cortes, committed to play, though he was reported to have a hamstring injury and backed out.
The other 14: AL Cy Young winner Justin Verlander plus Dylan Cease, Alek Manoah, Shane McClanahan, Shane Bieber, Gerrit Cole, Kevin Gausman, Max Fried, Aaron Nola, Zac Gallen, Carlos Rodon, Corbin Burnes, Kyle Wright and Logan Webb.
Of the five foreign-born starters who received Cy votes, four participated: NL Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara (Dominican Republic), Julio Urias (Mexico), Yu Darvish (Japan) and Shohei Ohtani (Japan).
The only non-American starter who received a Cy Young vote and did not participate was Framber Valdez, who wanted to but was encouraged by the Astros not to do so. Valdez (a native of the Dominican Republic) led the AL in innings last year (201 ⅓), and added 25 more in the postseason as the Astros won the World Series.
The reason starters turn down the invitations more readily and steadily:
1. Concern about the quick ramp-up and delivering of high-intensity innings before the season even begins.
2. The best starters have outsized importance and, thus, outsized pay, and their teams do everything to discourage participation (hello Yankees, front and center).
3. There are pitchers who have not yet reached free agency to land their big payday, and don’t want to incur further risk — though Urias and Ohtani pitched before beginning their walk years.
The biggest hurdle is that first concern — clubs and starters worry about disrupting the familiar build-up for the regular season. To get ready for the World Baseball Classic, the pre-spring training routine notably has to intensify, as does the early spring work. Then the pitchers have to deliver serious, pressurized innings with what might coincide with their second or third spring starts. Then they return and throttle down a bit just before ramping up again for the regular season.
So Lindor had a thought:
“You want the top dogs, you want it to be like the FIFA World Cup. If you want that, play it right now.”
Lindor was speaking on March 22, eight days before the regular season begins. He felt that would have allowed players dealing with minor injuries to begin the spring to play — he mentioned, for example, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Starling Marte for the Dominican Republic. Of course, the flip side is players who incur injuries early in the spring would be lost.
But the bigger upside of Lindor’s proposal, he believed, was that starting pitching would be built up on a more familiar trajectory.
If the tournament commenced, say, 10-12 days before the regular season began, starters already would be up to 70-90 pitches at regular-season intensity. I spoke to a major league official who said it is an idea with merit and probably would be discussed, though it did not sound as if change was likely for 2026.
The problems with Lindor’s recommendation remain familiar:
1. Clubs simply are going to be uncomfortable letting their players (especially pitchers) compete in games that do not count in the MLB season.
Holding the tournament closer to the regular season only means an injury would cost a player more actual games.
For example, several Mets people called for the tournament to be held in November in the aftermath of Edwin Diaz incurring a likely season-ending patellar tendon tear celebrating a Team Puerto Rico win over the Dominican. The theory would be that a player could heal from an injury in time to miss fewer regular-season games — or none at all.
But those against November timing would note that most teams have their seasons conclude at the end of September. Thus, those players — after a full 162-game workload — would have to stay sharp for another month and then compete in the tournament. Or players who had additional workloads in October then would have to extend their seasons even further if they wanted to participate.
The reality is there is no perfect time of year — every period comes with enough peril that there will be a large bloc railing against it. Those who prefer extending the All-Star break should know how staunch those opposed to that idea are, noting that those who are shutting it down (most of the players) would be forced to cool down and lose routine in the middle of the season. It also would necessitate fewer countries participating, and MLB wants to open the game up to the world as much as possible.
2. Logistics are also always problematic. Lindor’s other recommendation is that the tournament be played on a rotating basis in one geographic area: one year all Asia, one year in Europe, one year in North America (meaning games in the U.S., Mexico, Puerto Rico and Canada).
The tournament could be played in a slightly tighter window if all the teams were in one place.
And Lindor’s point was that it was about fairness. He mentioned that Cardinals players Tommy Edman (Team Korea) and Lars Nootbaar (Team Japan) had to travel from their camps to Asia to play the opening rounds and MLB players who represented the Netherlands and Panama were in the pool that played in Taiwan.
He felt that one location would remove disadvantages caused by jet lag, extra travel and other related factors. For example, every MLB player who competed in a tournament held entirely in Asia would be in the same lot returning to the United States.
I actually think it is about another area of fairness. This year, two of the early-round pools were played in Taiwan and Japan, but as always, it culminated with the semifinals and final in the United States. It should be noted that high-level professional leagues are about to begin their seasons in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. To not overly discomfort MLB/American players, we discomfort those about to play a season in Asia.
It is understood that you will really lose MLB/American participants if the brunt of the tournament were not played in the United States. I traveled to Tokyo in 2004 when the Yankees opened the season there against the Rays, and the amount of whining by Yankees personnel about having to be there could have been used as a primer on the overly entitled and xenophobic. It was better when the Yankees went to London in 2019 — but not great.
Still, there remains an arrogance to always playing the semis and final in the United States.
For the good of the tournament, the hope is that the best players from overseas will continue to want to participate in the tournament, which has far more resonance in Asia: The TV ratings in Japan for some of Team Japan’s games were superior to the best World Series viewerships.
But the tournament was a success here also. The players were into it. The games offered lots of drama — culminating in the dream Ohtani-Trout matchup. It was good for baseball, writ large, and good for MLB to help cultivate interest and serve as a terrific appetizer to this season.
There is no perfect time of the year to play the tournament and no way to swaddle the players in bubble wrap to protect from injury. This tournament is good for the industry. I think even team executives believe this was great public relations for the sport.
But I also think most folks, if you asked, would say there should be more facilities opened to help people struggling with mental health issues. However, if you tell those people that you want to open one down the block, you will hear a lot of NIMBY — Not In My Backyard.
Teams think the best starting pitchers should go to the tournament.
Just not their starting pitchers.
That needs to change.