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Many key Red Sox will play in World Baseball Classic; what about Aroldis Chapman for Great Britain?
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- Many key Red Sox will play in World Baseball Classic; what about Aroldis Chapman for Great Britain?
ORLANDO, Fla. — The Red Sox don’t anticipate ace Garrett Crochet or star rookie Roman Anthony participating in the World Baseball Classic in the spring. Regardless, Boston will be well-represented in the tournament.
In addition to reliever Garrett Whitlock , who will pitch for Team USA , there are many other Boston players expected to participate, according to manager Alex Cora and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow . Outfielders Jarren Duran (Mexico) is committed and Ceddanne Rafaela (Netherlands) and Wilyer Abreu (Venezuela) appear likely to join him. Reliever Jovani Morán will pitch for Puerto Rico. There are plenty of players in the “maybe” category, too, including Marcelo Mayer (Mexico), Aroldis Chapman (Great Britain) and Brayan Bello (Dominican Republic)
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Catcher Carlos Narváez (Venezuela) and designated hitter Masataka Yoshida (Japan) are unlikely to suit up in the tournament considering the injuries they dealt with in 2025.
Cora, who played twice for Puerto Rico and served as the island’s general manager in 2017, said the Red Sox encourage all their players to participate if it makes sense for them to do so. The tournament, which will be played from March 5-17, will pull players out of spring training.
“I love the tournament,” Cora said. “There’s some injury factor, and stuff happens. But it can happen in Houston . It can happen in Miami and Puerto Rico. It can happen in Fort Myers. But they have to play baseball.”
Cora said Crochet decided not to represent Team USA because his of his 2025 workload, which surpassed 200 innings. Narváez had offseason knee surgery and will be re-assessed in camp. Whitlock, Duran, Rafaela and Abreu all ended the season healthy and should be able to participate with no restrictions. Situations involving other players are more complicated.
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One such case is Mayer, who after missing the last two months of the season with a wrist injury, will be looking to compete for a starting infield spot in camp. He has expressed his interest in suiting up for Mexico but is not yet committed because he’s recovering from surgery .
“There’s certain rules within the tournament as far as injured players and insurance and surgeries and all that. So we’ll see where we’re at,” Cora said. “I know when we went to Monterrey, when he left Monterrey, he was like, ‘I want to play in the tournament.’ So we’ll see where we’re at. They’re kind of, like, 50/50, Mexico, understanding that he had surgery and there’s other stuff that comes up with the whole thing.
“It’s complicated, to be honest with you. But if he gets cleared, from our standpoint, if he wants to do it, we’re OK with it.”
Bello, who pitched a career-high 166 ⅔ innings in the regular season, wants to pitch for the Dominican Republic but the team will be careful with his build-up to the season.
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“He’s potentially a candidate but also there will be conversations there,” Breslow said. “The last couple years, he has come into spring training a little bit behind so that’s something who we want to make sure we’re sensitive to.”
Chapman, who re-signed with the Red Sox in September toward the end of an All-Star first season in Boston, is leaning toward pitching for Great Britain , though his paperwork has not yet been finalized, in part because it has been hard to access records from the Cuban government. Chapman is eligible to pitch for Great Britain because of his Jamaican heritage, which makes him eligible for British citizenship and therefore, participation in the tournament.
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