Dodgers’ Edwin Díaz to pitch for Puerto Rico in World Baseball Classic
New Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz will pitch for Puerto in the World Baseball Classic in March, it was announced Monday.
Díaz, who signed a three-year, $69 million contract in December as the most sought-after reliever in free agency, pitched for Puerto Rico in the 2023 WBC but tore the patella tendon in his right knee while celebrating a win over the Dominican Republic that pushed the team to the quarterfinals. As a result, he missed the entire 2023 MLB season.
Díaz, 31, has a 2.82 ERA and 253 saves over his nine-year career. During that span, no other MLB reliever surpasses him in strikeouts (839), while only Kenley Jansen has recorded more saves (334). With the New York Mets last season – his second since returning from knee surgery – Díaz also had one of his career best campaigns, posting a 1.63 ERA with 28 saves in 31 opportunities and 98 strikeouts in 66 ⅓ innings.
His announcement comes days after it was revealed that Dodgers teammate Shohei Ohtani would not pitch in the WBC in order to focus on ramping up during the unrestricted season. Yoshinobu Yamamoto will pitch for Team Japan and catcher Will Smith and recently retired left-hander Clayton Kershaw will be on Team USA.
The complete rosters for the 20 teams participating in the WBC will be revealed Thursday on MLB Network.
Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas announced last week that he had been forced to withdraw from bidding for the WBC, joining teammates Teoscar Hernández, Andy Pages and Andy Ibáñez. The obstacle for Rojas, who turns 37 next month, was the difficulty of obtaining insurance to guarantee his $5.5 million salary in case he missed Dodgers games due to injuries suffered during the WBC while representing his native Venezuela.
“I didn’t know that my chance to go represent my country for the first and only time, probably as a player, was going to be taken away because of an insurance issue,” Rojas said Saturday at the Dodgers’ annual fan event at Dodger Stadium.
