8 Phillies to participate as World Baseball Classic rosters are revealed

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Rosters for the World Baseball Classic were officially announced Thursday and eight Phillies players will participate.

We already knew J.T. Realmuto, Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner would play for Team USA, Gregory Soto would pitch for the Dominican Republic and Garrett Stubs would catch for Israel. 

Taijuan Walker will also participate for Team Mexico, while Jose Alvarado and Ranger Suarez will pitch for Venezuela.

The WBC runs from March 8-21. It features 20 teams and begins with pool play. There are four pools which each include five teams. 

The United States is in a pool with Canada, Colombia, Great Britain and Mexico with games beginning March 11 in Phoenix.

Four players who spent time in the Phillies organization will pitch for Canada: Nick Pivetta, Phillippe Aumont, Scott Mathieson and Adam Loewen.

Former Phillies lefty JoJo Romero will pitch with Walker for Mexico.

The Dominican Republic, Israel, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and Venezuela make up another pool that will play its games in Orlando. 

Ex-Phillies Hector Neris and Jean Segura join Soto on the Dominican team. There was a chance Seranthony Dominguez would have pitched for his home country as well but was not on the roster.

Vimael Machin, a utility infielder the Phillies signed to a minor-league contract in January, is on Puerto Rico's roster.

Japan, China, South Korea, Australia and the Czech Republic play in Tokyo. 

And Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Italy, Panama and the Netherlands play in Taiwan.

Every team plays the other four teams in its pool once. The top two teams from each pool advance and it's single elimination from there. 

Quarterfinals for the two western pools take place at loanDepot Park in Miami. The pools on the other side of the world will meet in Tokyo. The semifinals and championship run from March 19-21 in Miami.

The United States is looking to repeat after winning the tournament in 2017. Previous winners were the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Japan twice.

The WBC represents a significant chunk of spring training, so more than a handful of Phillies will be away from the team for about a half of camp. That might present some challenges in a normal year but even more so in 2023 when MLB rolls out a series of drastic rule changes such as the elimination of infield shifts, a pitch clock and limits on pick-off attempts. 

"A lot of guys aren't used to it," manager Rob Thomson said last month. "There are going to be some frustrating times. So I'm glad that right from the first game of spring training we're going to use it so they can get comfortable with it and get their body clock accustomed to it."

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