After a career year, electric closer Edwin Diaz signed a five-year $102 million extension with the Mets. This is the most valuable contract ever signed by a relief pitcher. However, after Puerto Rico defeated the Dominican Republic, Diaz suffered a freak knee injury during the celebration. This will keep Diaz out for the entire 2023 season. While this is unfortunate for him and the Mets, this shouldn’t keep the players from playing in the World Baseball Classic.
Diaz’s injury was a freak accident that nobody could’ve predicted. It could’ve easily happened in spring training or even during the season. Prior to Diaz, Dodgers shortstop Gavin Lux tore his ACL while running the bases in a meaningless spring training game. There is no way to completely avoid being hurt whether it’s playing, celebrating, or even just walking your dog. This has given the anti World Baseball Classic fans plenty of fuel for their fires. One thing for certain is the answer isn’t to ban the players from playing in the WBC.
The cynic will say that there is too much risk of injury if they let the players play in the tournament. While it was poor timing losing Edwin Diaz for the year, however, other professional athletes run the same risk. It also isn’t the first time that an athlete has sustained an injury and is unable to compete for a while. In 2014, Paul George broke his leg in the tryout camp to play for Team USA in the FIBA World Cup of Basketball. Due to this injury, George missed most of the subsequent season. However, the NBA didn’t ban its players from representing their country in world tournaments. In fact, the players still played in the tournament that year and participated in the Olympics in 2016 including George.
Every season, the players represent their respective clubs in Major League Baseball. They do this for 162 games for over seven months a year. Many of these players come to the United States from foreign or U.S. protectorate countries. All of them still have a lot of pride for their home countries. Many times, people back in their homeland very seldom get to see them play either on TV or live at the ballpark. All 30 of MLB’s clubs don’t visually represent where these players are from. The World Baseball Classic allows these players to compete while representing their home country. This only happens every four years which creates a small window for a player to wear the country’s colors. After all, nobody can play the game forever.
When baseball was in this past summer Olympics, the players were unable to participate due to it coinciding with the season. Other sports like basketball and soccer don’t have to deal with this issue. Those leagues have either been willing to pause or have already concluded. Prior to the Olympics, baseball hadn’t been a part of the games at all. This left the sport unable to show off its best players to the entire world. One thing that MLB has done a poor job of is marketing its players to a worldwide audience. Having them play in the WBC allows the league to show off the skills of Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, and others to a worldwide audience. Commissioner Rob Manfred has always talked about growing the game and this tournament is a great way to do that.
While Edwin Diaz’s injury is tragic, this shouldn’t cause teams to ban their players from participating. These players are doing the exact same thing they would be in spring training except with higher stakes. Major League Baseball would be doing a disservice to itself and the players if they don’t allow the players to play. It would hurt their efforts in trying to grow the game to a bigger audience. If teams are really concerned about their players getting hurt, then they might as well move the WBC after the season.
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