The United States Olympic Baseball Team He already has his complete roster which was announced earlier today, although the renowned journalist Jon Heyman, of MLB Network, reports that several well-known names from the Major Leagues will be part of the US team.
The full list has been announced by USA Baseball. Beyond the names already mentioned, the list also includes Clayton Andrews, Jonathan Bowlan, Brandon Dickson, DJ Johnson, Trevor Lane, Matthew Liberatore, Drew Parrish, Marc Rzepczynski, James Sherfy, Simeon Woods Richardson, Tim Federowicz, Mark Kolozsvary, Nick Allen, Eddy Alvarez, Logan Forsythe, Luke Williams, Eric Filia y Jon JaY. Here the complete roster:
Right-handers Homer Bailey, Edwin Jackson and David Robertson will be part of the pitching mix, as will left-hander Anthony Gose. Matt Kemp, Matt Wieters and Todd Frazier are some of the veteran position players. Bailey, Kemp and Wieters all played in the majors in 2020 and did not sign with a new team last offseason, while Frazier appeared in 13 games for the Pirates this season alone. It wasn’t until May 13 that Frazier decided to become a free agent, after he was designated for assignment by Pittsburgh.
Beyond these seasoned names, some notable young men will also be on the team, as distinguished reporter Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe noted yesterday that Red Sox prospects Triston Casas and Jarren Duran will be participating.
Rays right-hander prospect Joe Ryan is also expected to be part of the team, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Any player who was not on a current roster of 40 Major League Baseball players was eligible for Team USA, though naturally a team would have to agree to allow its minor league players to play.
Mike Scioscia will lead the USA team, and the team will take to the field from May 31 to June 5 during a qualifying tournament in Florida. Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Canada, Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela are the other seven teams involved, and the winner of the tournament will automatically qualify for the Olympics.
Those who finish second and third will advance to a final qualifying tournament against Australia, Chinese Taipei and the Netherlands on June 16-20 in Mexico, with the winner of that event claiming the sixth and final Olympic spot.
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Japan, Mexico, Israel and South Korea have already qualified for the baseball event at the Olympics, which are scheduled to take place from July 23 to August 6 in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place in 2020, the Olympics were naturally postponed for a year due to the pandemic, and the Games are still scheduled to start in July despite the worsening COVID-19 situation in Japan.
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