The Yankees, as opposed to the Mets, are not going to experience an extreme loss of players during spring training due to the World Baseball Classic.
Just three 40-man-roster Yankees are on the rosters that will be revealed officially Thursday at 7 p.m. on MLB Network: starter Nestor Cortes (United States), reliever Jonathan Loaisiga (Nicaragua) and second baseman Gleyber Torres (Venezuela).
Indigo Diaz, a minor league reliever the Yankees recently acquired from Atlanta in a package for Lucas Luetge, is on the Canadian roster, but is not currently on the Yankees’ 40-man roster and he was not one of the players the Yankees announced on Tuesday would be invited to spring training, which begins next week.
The Mets may have as many as 12 players from their organization depart for the WBC, including the starting infield of Pete Alonso (U.S.), Jeff McNeil (U.S.), Francisco Lindor (Puerto Rico) and Eduardo Escobar (Venezuela).
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Players are due to join camp with their country on March 6. The U.S. portion of the tournament runs from March 11 to the championship in Miami on March 21. Players return to their MLB teams in spring training once their countries are eliminated.
The Yankees initially had a larger contingent of players up for consideration, including Wandy Peralta and Luis Severino for the Dominican Republic team. But, among other things, the Yankees requested that Severino, for example, not pitch in the tournament due to his injury history over the last several years.
The most interesting participant for the Yankees is Torres, because there is trade speculation around him as the Yankees try to determine if Oswald Peraza and/or Anthony Volpe are ready to play in their middle infield to begin the season.
