ATLANTA -- Freddie Freeman, Ender Inciarte and Julio Teheran are among the 10 members of the Braves' organization slated to compete in this year's World Baseball Classic.
Freeman will honor his late mother's heritage by playing for Canada. Inciarte will play for Venezuela and Teheran will join White Sox left-hander Jose Quintana within Colombia's rotation. Two other members of Atlanta's projected starting rotation -- Bartolo Colon [Dominican Republic] and Jaime Garcia [Mexico] are also slated to compete in the World Baseball Classic, which will unfold in March at sites within the United States and overseas.
The World Baseball Classic runs from March 6-22. In the U.S., games will air live exclusively in English on MLB Network and on an authenticated basis via MLBNetwork.com/watch, while ESPN Deportes and WatchESPN will provide the exclusive Spanish-language coverage. MLB.TV Premium subscribers in the U.S. will have access to watch every tournament game live on any of the streaming service's 400-plus supported devices. Internationally, the tournament will be distributed across all forms of television, internet, mobile and radio in territories excluding the U.S., Puerto Rico and Japan. Get tickets for games at Marlins Park, Tokyo Dome, Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, Estadio Charros de Jalisco in Mexico, Petco Park, as well as the Championship Round at Dodger Stadium, while complete coverage -- including schedules, video, stats and gear -- is available at WorldBaseballClassic.com.
Five members of the Braves' organization that are not currently on the 40-man roster are also scheduled to compete. They include left-handed pitchers Andrew Albers [Canada], Jon Kennedy [Australia], Steve Kent [Australia], right-handed pitcher Andres Avila [Mexico] and outfielder Mel Rojas Jr. [Dominican].
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While Teheran and Garcia will likely make at least one start for their respective teams, Colon and Avila won't necessarily log any innings on the mound because they have been placed within the designated pitcher pool for their two nations.
Each team has the option of using the designated pitcher pool [DPP], which works like this: A team can use up to 10 designated pitchers but can't have more than two on its active roster at a time. Those "active" DPs can be replaced at the beginning of each of the next two rounds, but only by another DP. Once a DP has been replaced, he cannot return to the active roster for a subsequent round. Using Team USA as an example, Danny Duffy and Tanner Roark are the active DPs for the first round of pool play, so they can be replaced on the roster before the second round or the championship round, but only by one of the team's other DPs. And if a DP joins for the second round, he can be replaced for the championship round, but only by another DP.
Freeman, Teheran, Colon, Rojas and Albers will have the option to make a relatively short drive from the Braves' Lake Buena Vista, Fla., Spring Training base to compete in the first round. The United States, Canada, Colombia and the Dominican Republic make up Pool C, which will be contested at Miami's Marlins Park from March 9-13. The top two teams from each of the four first-round pools will advance.
Inciarte, Garcia and Avila will travel to Jalisco, Mexico, to compete in the first round within Pool D, which consists of Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Italy.
The teams that advance from Pool C and Pool D will travel to San Diego for the second round, which will be played from March 14-19. The semifinals and finals will be played at Dodger Stadium March 20-22.
Kennedy and Kent will compete in the first round within Pool B, which will be played at Japan's Tokyo Dome. The participating teams are Australia, Japan, Cuba and China. Teams that advance from this pool will stay at this location to compete against the two teams that advance from Pool A, which consists of Korea, the Netherlands, Israel and Chinese Taipei.