2023 World Baseball Classic: Venezuela Team Preview

The 2023 World Baseball Classic kicks off March 7, the first edition of this tournament since 2017. Venezuela finished eighth back in 2017, and actually won the bronze medal way back in 2009. The 2023 WBC is must-watch TV for all baseball lovers with the most talent-packed rosters to date.

It will be tough to top what happened in 2017 when USA’s center fielder Adam Jones robbed his former Orioles teammate Manny Machado of a HR in an elimination game versus the Dominican Republic with the world watching. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we see something that we’ll remember for years.

Venezuela Team Preview: WBC 2023

Venezuela opens its 2023 WBC tournament against the favorites in the Dominican Republic club March 11 in Miami. Venezuela is part of the stacked Pool D group along with Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Israel, and Nicaragua. They won’t get a day off, as Venezuela faces off against Francisco Lindor and Puerto Rico the following day. (Check out the entire World Baseball Classic schedule.)

Here’s the WBC bracket (via MLB.com), with the WBC Championship being played on March 21 in Miami.

WBC: Venezuela Roster

Venezuela’s rotation and lineup is full of big-league stars, and they’ll need their best efforts to make it out of the toughest pool. Their lineup is the team’s strength, led by Ronald Acuña Jr. and Jose Altuve at the top of the order. We could see manager Omar Lopez roll out a lineup that looks something like this:

WBC: Venezuela Pitchers

The Venezuela pitching staff is the strength of the club, with a number of great big-league pitching options. The Team Venezuela starting rotation should look something like this.

Venezuela could potentially start Ranger Suárez and/or Germán Márquez as well. The bullpen has plenty of firepower with Carlos Hernández, Darwinzon Hernandez, José Alvarado, Jhonathan Diaz and a handful of other flamethrowers out of the pen.