SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Cal Quantrill obviously spoke to Jordan Tiegs while he was away.
Quantrill, who is with the Rangers as a non-roster invite, was away from camp for a couple of weeks playing for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic. Tiegs, Texas' pitching coach, is a fellow Canadian.
“It's awesome,” Quantrill said of his experience at the WBC. “I think it's a can't miss opportunity. Most importantly, it's just such an honor to represent your country. There's only maybe two or three times, if you're lucky, where you can do that in your life. We had a blast. I think we gave what's considered a favorite a pretty good run for their money there in the quarters [Team USA]. I don't regret it at all.”
Quantrill, one of the more senior members of Team Canada, allowed one unearned run across five innings against Cuba to help Canada win Group A and advance to the quarterfinals, the furthest the country has ever gone in the tournament.
Canada had participated in all five previous World Baseball Classics, but never reached the knockout stage before this year. According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Quantrill became just the second Canadian pitcher to throw five or more innings in a WBC game (Noah Skirrow in 2023 vs Colombia).
“I wanted to give Canada an opportunity to make it to the quarters, and we were able to do that,” Quantrill said. “February hadn't gone the way I wanted, but I knew that my arm was in a good spot. I got a little bit of an adrenaline bump by playing in playoff-like atmosphere games in March, just to get the system rocking again. It went as good as it possibly could have gone.”
In all honesty, being away from Rangers camp probably benefited him as much as anything. Despite the fact that he’s not guaranteed a spot on the Opening Day roster, he was able to show what he can do against high-level competition in electric environments.
As important as Spring Training is, every player makes decisions in those games that they wouldn’t necessarily make in the regular season. With seven years of experience in the big leagues, Quantrill was more than happy to be on a bigger stage.
“I think everyone feels like those innings are just as valuable, if not more valuable, than what you'd be doing on a backfield or in a Spring Training game,” Quantrill said. “In terms of baseball, I think I'm as ready as I could have been, probably further along than I would have been had I stayed here.
“I'm not trying to devalue what we do here, right? I'm sure that they're well aware of what I can do. I don't think there's anything I was going to do in spring that was going to surprise them.”
Quantrill still does face an uphill battle to get to the Rangers’ Opening Day roster, though.
The fifth starter spot has been one of the biggest competitions in camp, with Kumar Rocker and Jacob Latz being the clubhouse leaders for that spot. Other veterans like Austin Gomber and Ryan Brasier are in the same boat as Quantrill as non-roster invitees.
“It's so hard with the guys that are fighting for a roster spot,” said Rangers manager Skip Schumaker.
“Going to the WBC to represent their country, I get how great it is, but it's hard to evaluate the non-roster guys that are fighting for a position. [Quantrill] is going to be throwing here in a couple days on the backfields to try to get to that 80-pitch mark. We’ll just keep evaluating. Again, we haven't made any final decisions yet. There’s potential, not only in the rotation, but the bullpen. All that stuff is part of the conversation that we're having internally. I still think he's building up as a starter for sure. But again, that fifth spot, we haven't decided yet, and he's part of the equation.”