Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes will not be pitching for Team
USA suffering a hamstring injury in his right leg while
running sprints last week will be replaced on the roster
by rockies lefty Kyle Freeland. Yeah, I remember
early talks last year uh, towards the end of
the season where uh kind of told my, my
my people that I wanted, I wanted to participate
in the World Baseball Classic. I was very excited
for it. I want to represent Team USA was
, you know, a country that gave me a
lot of opportunity to do a lot of stuff that
I'm doing today and, and I was very excited
for it. But um, you know, this
kid just came into this week and uh very disappointed
, obviously very sad that I can't kind of a
letdown for, for the country, but I think
the biggest score right here is to get healthy and
and be ready for the strongest when you're in our
position and you're got a chance to represent your country
in a uh, this kind of format in this
kind of competition against um other countries and things like
that, that it's something that you look forward to
doing and you want to do and you hope you
get the opportunity to, and when you get the
call and they ask you to be on the,
it's kind of one of those things, it was
a no brainer for me. I was never fortunate
enough when I was younger to be able to represent
the United States. So this is the first time
I get to wear that jersey and and put the
USa across my chest. Um, so it's something
I'm definitely excited for. I think that baseball is
kind of a unique sports where we all play with
so many different people from so many different places representing
tons of countries. And this is a cool event
where, you know, we get to kind of
put our own country on our back and play for
our flag and pray for play for where we're from
and we get to compete against some of our teammates
that, you know, we've been playing with for
so long and kinda have that little pride thing that
I'm sure all the houses are gonna be talking about
who wins and you know, it's gonna be something
fun to brag about for whoever doesn't get to hold
it up. You know, I was excited for
spring training in general just to meet everybody. Obviously
I'm the new guy in town. But um,
yeah, like you said, I played against some
players, Kyle for a little bit like a program
for so long because it's college and whatnot. But
you build relationships over the years, but it's just
gonna be fun to, you know, share the
same clubhouse and locker room and um, you know
, kind of be in the same same side of
it now and I think, yeah, atmospheres like
that and those, those, you know, adrenaline
games, I think you learn a lot about your
teammates and, and you gotta have each other's backs
and whatnot. So I think it's gonna be,
it's, it's gonna be fun, you know,
early test I guess, and a good chance to
get to know each other a little better. Former
first round draft choices swapped for one another. A
. J. Puck a little longer in the tooth
has had some injury concerns and has had a hard
time really meeting the really big potential that he's got
. Maybe that'll come in south florida and in return
the A's get a guy in J. J.
Played a who was considered one of the real jewels
of the 2019 draft. Really interesting trade when former
first rounders are swapped for one another. Um,
and again, hasn't had the kind of big league
exposure that puck has pucks got a million dollar arm
. He's just had some rough injury years. I
don't know what to take of it. Are the
marlins, how they're gonna use a J. Puck
coming out of the pen and they're gonna think about
maybe making the starter again. He's gonna get a
chance to play it open. That's right. So
he's gonna be excited about that tremendous bat for me
. David Peralta, you can move around the outfield
for you. It certainly knows the division very well
gives you a steady presence from the left side.
Of course, a longtime member of the Arizona Diamondbacks
, I've always really appreciated David Peralta's game and I
think the Dodgers do too on monday morning, the
Washington Nationals announced that owner Ted Lerner had passed away
at 97 years old. Born on the day of
Game seven of the 1925 World Series, which featured
the Washington Senators and Pittsburgh Pirates, the real estate
developer, spent His whole life in the nation's capital
in May of 2006. He was named the founding
managing principal owner of the nationals during his time saw
the team earned five postseason appearances, culminating with a
world championship in 2019. For more on these and
other stories keep it locked. MLB dot com.
It's baseball everywhere.