{"id":540492,"date":"2026-01-27T13:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T13:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/540492\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T13:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T13:00:15","slug":"venezuela-could-turn-to-a-former-ny-yankees-player-to-replace-jose-altuve-at-the-2026-wbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/540492\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela could turn to a former NY Yankees player to replace Jose Altuve at the 2026 WBC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-testid=\"paragraph\" class=\"mb-[20px] md:mb-[30px] break-word\">Venezuela missing <a href=\"https:\/\/bolavip.com\/en\/topic\/jose-altuve\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"break-word font-articleLinkText text-articleLinkText hover:text-articleLinkTextHover hover:bg-articleLinkTextHoverBg cursor-pointer border-solid border-b-articleLinkTextHover\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jos\u00e9 Altuve<\/a> at the 2026 World Baseball Classic would not be catastrophic, according to Fernando Arreaza Ortega, who believes former New York Yankees infielder Gleyber Torres could help fill the infield void left by the veteran World Series champion.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph\" class=\"mb-[20px] md:mb-[30px] break-word\">\u201cCertainly, Venezuela\u2019s WBC roster is better with Jos\u00e9 Altuve on it. But if Brian McTaggart\u2019s report about his absence is confirmed, there are several alternatives. The most straightforward one: <a href=\"https:\/\/bolavip.com\/en\/topic\/gleyber-torres\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"break-word font-articleLinkText text-articleLinkText hover:text-articleLinkTextHover hover:bg-articleLinkTextHoverBg cursor-pointer border-solid border-b-articleLinkTextHover\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Gleyber Torres<\/a> at second base,\u201d Arreaza wrote on X.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph\" class=\"mb-[20px] md:mb-[30px] break-word\">Of course, those would not be the only options for Venezuela, which remains one of the top favorites to contend at the World Baseball Classic. Arreaza also went as far as naming a World Series champion with the Dodgers, along with Luis Arr\u00e1ez, as players who could help soften the impact of Altuve\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n<p>Players who could help Venezuela at the WBC<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph\" class=\"mb-[20px] md:mb-[30px] break-word\">Even without Altuve, Venezuela still has experienced options, in some cases with as much or even more experience than the Astros star himself. One of them is Miguel Rojas, who recently won a World Series and could provide exactly what the team needs with his leadership and veteran presence.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph\" class=\"mb-[20px] md:mb-[30px] break-word\">\u201cThere\u2019s also Maikel Garc\u00eda and his versatility. Another option would be Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez at second base with Ezequiel Tovar at shortstop. Names like Miguel Rojas, Luis Arr\u00e1ez, and even players from the LVBP come into play. Even with this loss and others that could happen, Venezuelan baseball fortunately has depth. Altuve is a key pillar \u2014 his absence would be a significant blow \u2014 but there are ways to replace him,\u201d Arreaza wrote when discussing the available options.<\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph\" class=\"break-word\">Whether Altuve plays or not does not leave Venezuela weakened. Instead, it could open the door for younger players to seize the opportunity at the 2026 World Baseball Classic and showcase themselves, potentially accelerating their path to the major leagues, especially if the team turns to a non-MLB player.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venezuela missing Jos\u00e9 Altuve at the 2026 World Baseball Classic would not be catastrophic, according to Fernando Arreaza&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[5,817,4,1690,62,2548,2547,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-540492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-yankees","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-jose-altuve","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-yankees","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkyankees","15":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115967192245803142","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}