Five Baltimore Orioles are heading to the World Baseball Classic, which will take place in March.
The Baltimore Orioles announced five of their players are heading to the World Baseball Classic. However the move also conflicts with the starting staff in Spring Training.
Welington Castillo will play for team Dominican Republic. However, he hasn’t taken the chance to get to know his pitchers in Spring Training. Now Castillo is going to have to get to know his pitchers on a shortened schedule.
Pitchers and catchers are slated to report this weekend, with the first workout held on February 14th. However during the first week of March, five Orioles are slated to miss camp as they battle to see which team is superior in the WBC.
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Castillo, Manny Machado (Dominican Republic), Adam Jones (USA), Mychal Givens (USA) and Jonathan Schoop (Netherlands) are slated to play in the month-long tournament.
The Dominican Republic team is scheduled to play the Orioles at Ed Stadium on March 7th, but the next time the Orioles see Machado and Castillo could be when the tournament ends, which could be as late as March 23rd.
The Dominican Republic Team is currently the defending champions of the World Baseball Classic. However, Team USA is an early favorite in tournament, which means Machado, Castillo, Jones and Givens could have some friendly competition amongst each other.
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While the other four participants were announced prior to the rosters being announced, Castillo’s seems to be a little out of nowhere. Castillo emphasized on wanting to get to know the pitchers, but with him suddenly going to the World Baseball Classic, he’s going to have only about a week to get to know his pitchers.