The Puerto Rican Baseball Federation announced their roster for the WBSC Baseball Americas Qualifier, to be held at Tempe Diablo Stadium and Surprise Stadium in Arizona, USA, from 22-26 March.
Puerto Rican National Team manager Juan “Igor” Gonzalez named 26 athletes, including former big leaguers Jason Garcia, Ivan De Jesus Jr., Ozzie Martinez and Rey Navarro.
“It was hard to select the 26 players," said Gonzalez. "We had great competition for each position. We’ll have a great team.”
“After a month of training and evaluation we have finished the team to represent Puerto Rico and qualify for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020,” said José Quiles Rosas, President of the National Federation. “The goal is to win the tournament in Arizona and become the fifth qualified nation for the Olympics.”
The outfielders named in the roster are Hibraim Cordova, Cesar Rivera, Aldemar Burgos, Edwin Gómez and Brahiam Maldonado.
Wilfredo Rodríguez and Michael Arroyo will be the catchers.
Along with Navarro, Martinez and De Jesus, the infield players available are Jeffrey Domínguez, Nelson Molina, Luis Mateo and Kevin Luciano.
Finally, the pitching staff will be led by García, together with Luis Cintrón, Miguel Martínez, Christian Torres, Ramesis Rosa, Efraín Nieves, Iván Maldonado, Fernando Cruz, Joshua Torres, Freddie Cabrera, Jesús Ortiz and Bryan Escanio.
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The first training session for the 26 players will be today (Tuesday, 10 March), continuing after that with three sessions per week until 20 March, when the team travels to Arizona.
Puerto Rico will face the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and host USA in Group A of the WBSC Baseball Americas Qualifier. The top two teams of each group will advance to the Super Round.
