Why Cincinnati Reds stars declined WBC invitations – and what it means
Show Caption
- Key members of the Cincinnati Reds pitching staff passed on competing in the World Baseball Classic.
- Some members of the Reds passed on competing in the WBC to focus on the team's goal to return to the playoffs.
- Reds ace Hunter Greene admitted it was a difficult decision to pass on the prestigious WBC.
GOODYEAR, Arizona – Emilio Pagán, the Cincinnati Reds’ veteran closer, tells anyone in the clubhouse who will listen: If you get a chance to play in the World Baseball Classic, do it.
“It was awesome,” he said. “It was some of the most fun baseball I’ve ever played.”
And lots of Reds players have gained enough notice coming off last year’s playoff season to get asked to play in this spring’s tournament, including Pagán – “a bunch of times.”
But a funny thing happened on the way to international glory for these guys.
Almost all of them declined, including four top-shelf members of the pitching staff in Pagán and starters Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo and Andrew Abbott.
“It’s not an easy decision,” Lodolo said.
But it’s one he said was made with clarity of 2026 vision. With focus on the stakes and higher expectations surrounding the Reds as they opened spring training this week.
“I thought it was important to be here and use this time to build up and really focus on what we’ve got going here,” said Lodolo, who was invited by Team USA soon after the 2025 season ended – and who made his decision within a few days after conversations with Reds officials.
Greene, the All-Star and Reds ace, had almost the same reaction to the call from Team USA – which sought the best of the best and landed Cy Young winners Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal.
“Definitely a difficult choice,” Greene said. “I definitely want to be able to represent, but my focus is on the (Reds).“
Abbott mentioned a focus on the same thing, as well as preparation issues and the fact that he enters the arbitration-eligible phase of his career after this season.
Elly De La Cruz passed on the WBC after a long deliberation
The Reds’ biggest star, Elly De La Cruz, also declined an invitation from the Dominican Republic entry – after a deliberation that went well into December and involved significant lobbying from the DR’s superstar manager, Albert Pujols.
Whether those decisions make a competitive difference for those players by the time the season reaches October, it’s a pretty good indication where the minds of Cincinnati’s young core players are as camp opens.
On the business at hand. The business of winning. Unfinished business.
“I hope that’s what’s going through your head,” said Pagán, who has played in two of the last three WBC’s for Team Puerto Rico, as a prospect in 2017 and an established reliever in 2023.
“I just felt like it was time for me to step aside and let somebody else have a chance while also having respect for the Cincinnati Reds ,” said Pagán, who earned 32 saves with a 2.88 ERA last year. “They’re expecting a lot out of me, so I wanted to make sure I was doing everything I needed to do to give myself the best chance to have a fully healthy season and produce as well as I can.”
He said he’s not sure there’s an advantage to skipping the tournament when it comes to regular-season success.
But if there is, the Reds’ October chances just got better.
Eugenio Suarez will represent the Reds in the WBC
Veteran slugger Eugenio Suárez , from Venezuela, is the only member of the Reds’ projected 26-man roster who will participate in next month’s tournament – one of only two players in big-league camp scheduled to leave camp the final week of February, ramping up to play what Pagán called “high, high intensity baseball” as long as their teams remain alive in the tournament.
No team in the majors has fewer players in their 26-man mix playing in the tournament. By contrast, the National League Central-favored Cubs have at least eight, including two starting pitchers. The Phillies and Mariners have more than that.
One guy in Reds camp sees a distinct advantage in that for the team: manager Terry Francona.
“Back a few WBC’s, we were doing our first-and-third plays one spring (with Cleveland), and after about five minutes, I said, what the (heck) are we doing,” Francona said. “(Francisco) Lindor wasn’t there. (Carlos) Santana wasn’t there. (Jose) Ramirez wasn’t there. We didn’t have any of our infielders. It was, like, why are we doing this?
“We take this real serious in spring training,” Francona said. “Every day we talk about stuff. You try to build your identity and your personality. And it’s kind of hard when you’re missing 10 guys. I get it. They’re trying to grow the game. And I respect that. We’re trying to grow the Reds. That’s what we care about.”
About 45 minutes up the road in Arizona, Cubs president Jed Hoyer said: “If you want to look at it as a disadvantage you can. But I think you can look at it the other way: It gives opportunity (to prospects). …The better you get as a team, probably the more players you have (playing in it). I would take it as a compliment that different countries want our players.”
Reds manager Terry Francona worries about injuries at WBC
Tell that to the Mets, who lost $102 million closer Edwin Diaz for the season to a knee injury suffered while celebrating after a WBC win. Or the Astros, who lost star second baseman Jose Altuve for most of the first half of the same 2023 season because he broke his thumb in a WBC game.
Francona said he’s not so concerned about a hitter such as Suárez participating, or even a prospect like Edwin Arroyo, who might get the benefit of playing time and high competition for Puerto Rico, he said.
“The pitchers are what I would worry about,” Francona said. “I talked to Lodolo a few times. I said, ‘Hey, man, if you’re dying to do it, I’ll support you. I’m just worried. I’ve seen guys come back and not be the same.’
“And I said, ‘I want you to be wealthy as hell. Maybe there’ll be a day down the road where you’ve got $50 million in the bank, and go ahead and do it.’ He was good about it.”
Lodolo: “He kept telling me he’d be scared to death every time I went out there and took the field. Which I’m sure every manager is with every guy that’s playing in it.”
Pagán said he sees the competitive debate both ways. For instance, the intensity of the competition in March can help a player be better prepared for a strong start and more successful season, as he said it did for him in 2023.
But the Reds at least sidestep the pitching injury risk. And those who declined invitations seem to suggest a shared focus and ethic as they approach a season of the highest expectations in five years or more around these parts.
And the invitations might say as much about the Reds as the Cubs participants say about that team.
“It’s definitely not an easy decision,” Lodolo said. “I hope I get the opportunity again. It was an honor to be asked. And something I would love to do for sure.”
Enquirer reporter Patrick Brennan contributed to this report.
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