{"id":604111,"date":"2026-03-03T19:03:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T19:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/604111\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T19:03:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T19:03:28","slug":"several-kansas-city-royals-players-prep-for-world-baseball-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/604111\/","title":{"rendered":"Several Kansas City Royals players prep for World Baseball Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>KSHB 41 News anchor Lindsay Shively offers coverage on a wide variety of topics, including stories of interest to consumers. <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kshb.com\/sports\/baseball\/royals\/mailto:lindsay.shively@kshb.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Reach out to Linsday via email<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<p>While I was in Arizona in February, I got a chance to stop by Spring Training in Surprise as the Royals get ready for the 2026 season. <\/p>\n<p>This week, several players will leave to play in the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/mlb-players-on-2026-world-baseball-classic-rosters?msockid=1c3eb88451f66a4f2c9fab13505c6bf2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">World Baseball Classic.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Several Kansas City Royals players prep for World Baseball Classic<\/p>\n<p>I counted 17 on MLB&#8217;s list, which includes Bobby Witt Jr. and Michael Wacha playing for the United States; Vinnie Pasquantino and Jack Caglianone playing for Italy; Seth Lugo playing for Puerto Rico; and Maikel Garcia and Salvador Perez playing for Venezuela. <\/p>\n<p>Salvy is his team&#8217;s captain!<\/p>\n<p>I asked him what he is looking forward to about the WBC.<\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/.png\" alt=\"Screenshot 2026-03-03 at 10.38.57\u202fAM.png\"  width=\"1280\" height=\"721\"\/><\/p>\n<p>KSHB 41<\/p>\n<p>        Lindsay Shively, Salvador Perez<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To win!&#8221; he laughed. &#8220;Super excited to represent my country. I can&#8217;t wait.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Pasquantino echoed the same excitement. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ah, it&#8217;s great,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s one of the best experiences I&#8217;ve ever had playing baseball, so being able to do it again, this time within the United States, will be really special.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He talked about working to grow baseball culture in Italy as well.<\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772564605_263_.png\" alt=\"Vinnie Pasquantino.png\"  width=\"1280\" height=\"714\"\/><\/p>\n<p>KSHB 41<\/p>\n<p>        Vinnie Pasquantino<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yeah, 100%. It&#8217;s kinda why we&#8217;re doing it, is to get baseball on an international scale in Italy, on the TV, in the news there&#8230;&#8221; Pasquantino said. &#8220;They&#8217;ve already begun trying to help with training, development out there, and this is just an &#8230; easier way for us to do it by just trying to play.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The World Baseball Classic kicks off Wednesday in Tokyo. Team Venezuela starts in Miami. Team Italy and <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/moments\/experiences\/world-baseball-classic-bracket-challenge?affiliateID=world_bracketchallenge_wbc_digital_2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Team USA head to Houston<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You can fill out your own World Baseball Classic bracket on <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/world-baseball-classic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MLB&#8217;s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kshb.com\/sports\/baseball\/royals\/mailto:lindsay.shively@kshb.com?subject=Contact Lindsay Shively\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/LINDSAYBEATFSV.png\" alt=\"Lindsay Shively\" style=\"width: 100%; height: auto; display: block;\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KSHB 41 News anchor Lindsay Shively offers coverage on a wide variety of topics, including stories of interest&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2387],"tags":[5,936,2123,12624,55,2596,2595,78536,4,252,4820],"class_list":["post-604111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kansas-city-royals","tag-baseball","tag-kansas","tag-kansas-city","tag-kansas-city-news","tag-kansas-city-royals","tag-kansascity","tag-kansascityroyals","tag-lindsay-shively","tag-mlb","tag-royals","tag-world-baseball-classic"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116166801479432909","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604111","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=604111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}