The World Baseball Classic will be without several of its top stars because they have been unable to acquire insurance coverage in case they are injured during the tournament.
No team has been hit harder than Puerto Rico, which couldn’t secure insurance coverage for several of its biggest names in Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa, Jose Berrios and Emilio Pagan.
Puerto Rican officials are so frustrated that they have considered pulling out of the WBC, federation president José Quiles revealed.
The Major League Baseball Players Association said that Lindor is unable to play in the WBC because of an elbow procedure early in the offseason, although he will be fine to participate in spring training for the New York Mets.
“Francisco is obviously disappointed that he was be unable to participate,’ the MLBPA said in a statement. “However, because of WBC insurance constraints, he is ineligible to play in WBC games. He was participate fully in all spring training activities.’
Houston Astros All-Star second baseman Jose Altuve was also denied insurance and won’t be able to play for Venezuela in the WBC.
“Due to the criteria for WBC insurance coverage, Jose Altuve was looking forward to participating in the WBC and representing Venezuela, but unfortunately is not eligible to do so,’ the MLBPA said in a statement.
Venezuela will also be without Dodgers World Series hero Miguel Rojas, who announced on his Instagram account that he was also denied insurance.
“Today I am very sad,” he wrote in Spanish. “A true shame I can’t represent my country and put that flag on my chest.”
The inability to secure insurance kept three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw from participating in the WBC in 2023 because of his back issues. Now that he’s retired, there’s no need for insurance and he’ll be on this year’s USA team.
MLB requires all players on their 40-man roster to have an insurance policy that protects the team if a player sustains and injury during the WBC that requires them to miss games during the regular season. Most of the insurance issues are over a player’s prior injury history.
Players like Edwin Diaz and Altuve who were injured in the 2023 WBC were covered by insurance policies, and were still paid, but not by the team.
Diaz missed the entire 2023 season when he suffered a complete patellar tendon tear in his right knee celebrating Puerto Rico’s win over the Dominican Republic. Altuve suffered a broken right thumb when he was hit by a pitch from Team USA pitcher Daniel Bard. He missed the first 43 games of the 2023 season.
There have been no publicly known cases of any player this year who were prevented from joining Team USA because of an inability to acquire insurance.
Yet, perhaps no one in the tournament is taking a bigger financial risk than two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers. He’s a free agent after the season and is expected to secure the largest contract by a pitcher in MLB history, perhaps exceeding $400 million.