WBC17 Rosters: Venezuela

With the Royals playing the Athletics on MLB.tv's free game of the day, we are seeing a total of seven players who played in this year's World Baseball Classic. The catch is: all seven play for the Royals. Eric Hosmer and Danny Duffy were covered in my last post about Team USA, and they weren't the only other pair of teammates to both be on the field tonight, as in the second inning, one member of Team Venezuela had the chance to drive in another (he was not successful thanks to a brilliant catch by Rajai Davis). Let's see what the rest of a very impressive Team Venezuela looked like this year:

Just one unemployed member of this team! Roster statuses are current as of WBC play.

Of course, Alcides Escobar played in all seven of Venezuela's WBC17 appearances, but he would only have had the chance to drive in his real life teammate Salvador Perez in the first two games, since Salvy was nearly taken out by a slide from his other real life teammate Drew Butera, a member of Team Italy. Every member of the starting nine played a significant role on a major league team in 2016, with some even counting as fantasy superstars. Diminutive Taurus Jose Altuve (he'll share an astrological team with Perez when the latter is healthy) was not only the top ranked second baseman heading into 2017, but he also got some reps at third playing for his native country. This was not only due to the injury to Martin Prado, but also to get promising young recently-extended 2B Rougned Odor into the lineup. Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez both played on Venezuela's inaugural WBC team back in 2006.

Blue = Non-Roster Invitee. Green = Minor League signing. Gray = Not on my proprietary database.

The Venezuela starting rotation ranges from a former All-World talent in Mariners ace Felix Hernandez, to a former minor league swingman on the Twins (Minnesota, not Gemini) Omar Bencomo. Of the other pitchers who started WBC games, Chacin and Perez will have starting roles on the Padres and Rangers, respectively, and Petit will feature in the Angels bullpen. Looking at closers, this team has three: all-time single season saves leader Francisco Rodriguez, twice-deposed Cubs ninth inning man Hector Rondon, and Mexican league closer Arcenio Leon, who inked a minor league deal with the Tigers in the offseason, perhaps to play closer to his countryman K-Rod in Detroit. In terms of future closers, I would hesitate to name another Tiger Bruce Rondon after his recent demotion to the minors. Incidentally, B Rondon's MLB replacement Joe Jimenez played for Puerto Rico in this WBC.

The other Royals in the 2017 WBC is Mexican setup man Joakim Soria, and middle reliever Peter Moylan, who appeared once for Australia, and then was promoted to the big league roster after re-signing on a minor league deal in Kansas City. KCR went into today's game 2-5. Let's see if their performance throughout the rest of the season has anything to do with how many of their players represented their countries during Spring Training.