BOSTON - For the next two days, Alex Cora will try to figure out ways to stop Nolan Arenado. Two years ago, he made a pitch to the Rockies All-Star to join him.
As the manager of Team Puerto Rico for the 2017 World Baseball Classic, Cora did his best to convince the slugger to represent the island nation. Arenado's mother hails from Puerto Rico, which made him eligible to join a loaded infield that included Cleveland's Francisco Lindor, Houston's Carlos Correa, and Chicago's Javier Baez.
It almost worked.
"It was really good recruiting," Arenado said on Tuesday before the Rockies opened a two-game series at Fenway. "It was a really tough phone call to let him know I was going to go with USA, but that's where my heart was, my heart was with USA."
Arenado was born and raised in El Toro, California, and playing for Team USA was too much of an honor to decline. But that didn't stop Cora from trying.
"It was like, 'You're going to be playing with Carlos, Francisco, and Javier in this tournament,'" Cora said. "I think we were close. Then he decided. It's tough in his situation, Nolan, he doesn't speak the language. So to spend two or three weeks with a group of guys that are mainly going to talk a different language, it was probably going to be tough for him.
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"He was honest. He kept me informed until the end, which was cool. It was one where I really wanted him to play for us."
It's easy to understand why. The four-time All-Star and three-time National League home run champion is one of the most complete players in baseball, with Gold Gloves in each of his first six seasons and three top-five finishes in the MVP race. The 28-year-old is off to another monster start, hitting .319 with 10 homers and 33 RBI.
Arenado said he has shared a close relationship with Cora since High-A, when the manager pitched him on playing winter ball in Puerto Rico. "He's always been really cool to me," Arenado said.
As far as the WBC goes, he ended up making the right choice, because the U.S. beat Puerto Rico in the final 8-0 to claim its first title.
"It was awesome beating them," Arenado said. "I knew I had made the right decision and I had no regrets about it, and then winning a championship put a stamp on it, too."
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