Photo: Doug Gray
The Cincinnati Reds have lost two players from big league camp as the World Baseball Classic is getting ready to begin. Many of the WBC teams actually took the field yesterday in Arizona and Florida for exhibition games against teams in spring training. Today the Reds will be one of those teams as they take on Team Cuba later this afternoon. But with all of the teams getting ready to begin their games it means players have headed off to join their country’s teams and two players in Cincinnati’s big league camp left.
Eugenio Suarez headed to Miami to join Team Venezuela. He got a start with them yesterday as the team’s designated hitter and #6 hitter. He went 0-4 against the Houston Astros, for those who happen to be curious. Shortstop prospect Edwin Arroyo also headed east to join team Puerto Rico in Florida, though soon they will all head to Puerto Rico where their pool play will take place.
Four to five minor leaguer players also left minor league camp. Infielder Ivan Johnson is in Florida and is with Team Great Britain. Shortstop Alexander Vargas is with Team Cuba, who is still in Arizona and will take on the Reds today, but will soon be headed to Puerto Rico for Pool play. Right-handed pitcher David Lorduy is with Team Colombia and is in Florida and will also be going to Puerto Rico for Pool play. The last player that will be in Pool play is left-handed pitcher Ryjeteri Merita, who is playing on Team Netherlands. He’s in Florida and started the game for them on Tuesday against the Baltimore Orioles. I wrote about his performance and his background over at RedsMinorLeagues.com if you want more info on the 20-year-old prospect.
The other minor leaguer to discuss is right-handed reliever Irvin Machuca. He is not currently on the active Team Mexico roster. But he is on their roster’s secondary roster of pitchers who can be added in case of injury, or can be added to the roster after Pool play for players who are heading back to big league camp or for any other reason, really.
The World Baseball Classic begins tonight. The first game of the tournament will be in Japan when Taiwan takes on Australia at 10pm ET tonight on FS1. Things in Japan will continue on Thursday with two more games – Czechia vs Korea at 5am ET and Australia vs Czechia at 10pm ET with both games being on FS1. On Friday things really get started as there are eight games going on with all of the four Pools being in action.