{"id":549189,"date":"2026-02-01T16:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T16:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/549189\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T16:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T16:21:14","slug":"team-puerto-rico-considering-withdrawal-from-world-baseball-classic-amid-insurance-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/549189\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Puerto Rico Considering Withdrawal From World Baseball Classic Amid Insurance Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 World Baseball Classic is just around the corner, three years after the last tournament ended in epic fashion with Shohei Ohtani<\/a> striking out then-Angels teammate Mike Trout<\/a> to give Team Japan the win over Team USA. Fans and players alike are excited for the event around the game, but a wrench has been thrown into the works as a number of players have been denied insurance coverage to participate in the tournament. As noted by Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic<\/a>, the insurance concerns are significant enough that Team Puerto Rico has suggested they might need to withdraw from the tournament entirely due to eight to ten players on their expected roster being denied coverage.<\/p>\n

Puerto Rico\u2019s losses are headlined by team captain and Mets superstar Francisco Lindor<\/a>, whose coverage was denied on the basis of a minor elbow procedure<\/a> he underwent back in October. That denied coverage comes in spite of the fact that Lindor is expected to be ready for Spring Training and played in 160 of the Mets\u2019 games last year. After injuries to Edwin Diaz<\/a> and Jose Altuve<\/a> during the 2023 tournament, Drellich and Rosenthal report not only that insurance has become more expensive but also that the league\u2019s insurer has adopted more of a hard line stance on what players they will and won\u2019t approve.<\/p>\n

Recent surgery and trips to the 60-day injured list are typically disqualifying for receiving insurance coverage, according to Drellich and Rosenthal, though they add that the league\u2019s insurer reviews each individual player on a case-by-case basis. Alden Gonzalez of ESPN offers<\/a> a bit more detail on the standards of National Financial Partners, the MLB-partnered insurance broker who handles the policy. Players classified as having \u201cchronic\u201d\u00a0injuries have a harder time getting insured. Players who were injured for 60 days or longer in the prior season, who missed two of their team\u2019s last three games due to injury in the prior season, who underwent offseason surgery, have undergone multiple surgeries throughout their career, or were placed on the injured list on the final day of August or later in the prior season can all be flagged as having \u201cchronic\u201d injuries.<\/p>\n

Another disqualifying factor is age, as Rosenthal and Drellich indicate that NFP will not cover players once they turn 37. That\u2019s left Miguel Rojas<\/a> to be denied coverage ahead of his 37th birthday on February 24, blocking him from participating with Team Venezuela. Rojas won\u2019t be the only one denied coverage due to age, however, as Drellich and Rosenthal note that NFP is also unlikely to cover players who will turn 37 during the window of coverage associated a team would receive if the player gets hurt. Insurance typically covers two years of salary for position players and four years of salary for pitchers.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that denial of insurance coverage doesn\u2019t automatically disqualify a player from participating in the WBC. Rather, it then puts the onus on the player\u2019s MLB club regarding whether the team is willing to stomach the risk of that player participating in the tournament while uninsured. It\u2019s a rare but not unheard of step for a team to take. Rosenthal and Drellich note Miguel Cabrera<\/a>\u2019s participation in the tournament back in 2023 as an instance where a player was permitted to play uninsured. Of course, it should be noted that Cabrera was headed into the final season of his Hall of Fame caliber career and was already slated to be a part-time player, so the risk for Detroit if he did suffer a major injury was extremely small.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t only an issue that impacts players with hefty salaries. Team Puerto Rico\u2019s operations manager, Joey Sola, told Drellich and Rosenthal that even some Double-A players without MLB salary guarantees or invites to big league Spring Training have been flagged in the insurance process. At the major league level, a number of relievers and other players with relatively low salaries have been denied coverage in spite of the substantially lower payout associated with them relative to the injury of a star player on a nine-figure contract.<\/p>\n

Turning to Team Puerto Rico specifically, Gonzalez writes that Victor Caratini<\/a>, Carlos Correa<\/a>, Jose Berrios<\/a>, Emilio Pagan<\/a>, and Alexis Diaz<\/a> are all expected to miss the tournament in addition to Lindor. So too is southpaw Jovani Moran<\/a>, as noted by Tim Healey of the Boston Globe<\/a>. Drellich and Rosenthal write that Moran\u2019s case is under review, as are the cases of right-handers Luis Quinones<\/a> and Yacksel Rios<\/a>. Puerto Rico, with a population of just 3.2 million on the island, is being hit particularly hard by these losses due to a lack of quality substitutes. Puerto Rico\u2019s capital of San Juan is scheduled to play host to one of the four pools in Round 1 of the WBC, joining Houston, Miami, and Tokyo. Multiple reports have indicated that Team Puerto Rico\u2019s statements about potentially withdrawing from the tournament could lead to a less stringent approach towards approval for some of the team\u2019s players.<\/p>\n

The possible withdrawal of Team Puerto Rico isn\u2019t the only controversy stemming from the coverage denials. As noted by Drellich and Rosenthal, Rojas and some in the Puerto Rican media have criticized the process as being particularly harsh on Latin American countries, with the United States and Japan receiving favorable treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy only question is: Why is it just with our countries [in Latin America], like Venezuela, Puerto Rico, a couple Dominican players?\u201d Rojas said, as relayed by Gonzalez. \u201cI don\u2019t see that happening with the United States or happening with Japan. And I\u2019m not trying to attack anybody, or attack what\u2019s going on \u2026 but at the end of the day, it feels like it\u2019s just happening with the players that want to represent their country from Latin America. So, there\u2019s a lot of things I would like to talk about with someone in control, with someone from MLB.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard to understand that perspective, given that Ohtani would seem to fit the bill of a player with a \u201cchronic\u201d\u00a0injury according to the process Gonzalez laid out after undergoing surgeries throughout his career. While Ohtani has been cleared to play for Team Japan as a DH, it\u2019s also important to note that he will not pitch in the WBC<\/a> and that reporting from Drellich and Rosenthal indicates he was not likely to be approved for coverage as a pitcher.<\/p>\n

Another gripe that\u2019s been expressed with the process is the extremely short turnaround time on decisions. WBC rosters are due this coming Tuesday, February 3, and will be announced on Thursday February 5. Some cases still remain under review and a number of decisions have come within just the last few days, leaving WBC teams to scramble for replacements when their expected players get denied coverage unexpectedly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some ways, I think it\u2019s a little bit unfair,\u201d Sola said, as relayed by Drellich and Rosenthal. \u201cEspecially when you are three days from submitting your final roster. Who in the world would think Lindor wasn\u2019t on the (eligible) list? You wait until the last weekend to get an answer on Lindor? C\u2019mon.\u201d<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether Team Puerto Rico will withdraw from the tournament, or if some combination of players approved for coverage after review and a collection of substitute players will be enough to allow them to remain as part of the tournament. With less than 48 hours remaining until the day rosters are due, however, time is running out for the WBC, MLB, the MLBPA, and NFP to handle this issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 World Baseball Classic is just around the corner, three years after the last tournament ended in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,227,8935,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-549189","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-francisco-lindor","10":"tag-miguel-rojas","11":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115996294581086778","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549189","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=549189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}