Mike Trout is going to have plenty of company among his Angels teammates in the World Baseball Classic.
The Angels have 10 players from the 40-man roster on the final WBC rosters that were released on Thursday afternoon, plus another eight minor leaguers.
The most prominent Angels in the event are Trout, who is the captain of Team USA, and Shohei Ohtani, who is playing for Japan. Trout will stay with the Angels through March 6 and Ohtani through around March 1, before leaving to join their WBC teams.
Beyond those two, infielders Luis Rengifo and left-hander José Quijada are playing for Venezuela. Right-hander Jaime Barria (Panama), right-hander Carlos Estevez (Dominican Republic), infielder David Fletcher (Italy), left-hander Patrick Sandoval (Mexico), infielder Gio Urshela (Colombia) and right-hander Zack Weiss (Israel) are also on WBC rosters.
All of those players except for Weiss are locks to make the Opening Day roster.
Players will leave Angels camp in the first week of March, depending on when and where their WBC teams will be practicing together for the tournament. USA, Mexico and Colombia are training and playing their opening-round games in Arizona. Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Israel are beginning play in Miami. Italy and Panama open in Taichung, Taiwan, and Japan opens in Tokyo.
The WBC final will be on March 21 in Miami. The Angels open the regular season on March 30 in Oakland.
General Manager Perry Minasian said the Angels would invite more minor leaguers to camp than normal to account for the WBC absences. The Angels still have not released their full spring training roster.
The minor leaguers on WBC rosters are right-hander Glenn Albanese (Italy), catcher Gustavo Campero (Colombia), right-hander Alan Carter (China), left-hander Jake Kalish (Israel), outfielder D’Shawn Knowles (Great Britain), right-hander Gerardo Reyes (Mexico), right-hander Cesar Valdez (Dominican Republic) and outfielder Aaron Whitefield (Australia).
Angels…
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