We are in the final stretch of winter league baseball. The Caribbean Series is taking place this week in Mexico where four countries and five teams are playing for a championship. A few days after that spring training opens up in Florida and Arizona.
While there were a handful of players from the organization who played with the teams who are now in the Caribbean Series representing their country, by the looks of it only one guy is actually participating. Ichiro Cano is on the Mexico Verde team, but he did not play in their first game. They take the field later this afternoon against Panama for their second game.
The Australian Winter League championship was wrapped up at the end of January and the championship series saw Adelaide top Sydney in a 3-game series. Both teams featured Cincinnati Reds prospects, with Drew Davies playing for Adelaide and outfielder Pablo Nunez and shortstop Hansel Jimenez playing with Sydney.
Davies not only won the league title, but he was also named the league’s rookie of the year award. That comes with the asterisk, though, that only players from Australia can win the award. The 20-year-old hit .276/.366/.370 in 37 regular season games with Adelaide, adding nine doubles, a home run, 17 walks, and he scored 26 runs to go along with 35 strikeouts. He would go 3-10 in the championship series.
Hansel Jimenez had a strong series against Adelaide. The 19-year-old shortstop went 4-10 with a walk, two doubles, two runs scored, and he drove in two runs. Pablo Nunez went 3-12 for Sydney in the series, walking twice and driving in a run.
Catcher Jirvin Morillo had been with Sydney earlier in the regular season, but the catcher played his final game on December 28th and missed the final couple of weeks of the regular season. The Reds brought him to Arizona in January to participate in an “early camp” of sorts that they hold each year.
The World Baseball Classic is returning this spring. Some countries that are participating have been announcing additions to their roster for months now, but the full rosters are still being finalized. On Thursday night all of them are going to be announced on MLB Network at 7pm ET.
As of now there are no Reds big leaguers that have been announced as players on a roster. The US, Dominican Republic, and Japan are the only countries that have announced most of or their entire rosters at this point, though. Elly De La Cruz was asked to play for the Dominican Republic but the Reds didn’t approve it. We’ll find out in a few days if anyone from the organization will be on a roster for the 20 teams that are participating. The tournament begins on March 5th in Japan with Taiwan facing off against Australia. The championship game will be played on March 17th in Miami, which will host five of the seven playoff games (Houston will host the other two – both in the quarterfinals).