TBNL: Cuba might be out of the WBC, Orlando Dreamers lose investors, Baseball United starts revealing rosters

Today’s TBNL includes news on the World Baseball Classic, the future of baseball in Orlando, an update on the U-18 World Cup, Baseball United’s inaugural rosters, and The Supreme Cheeto visits New York.

The next edition of the World Baseball Classic is now six months away. The 20 participating countries were expected to file their first 50-man preliminary rosters at the start of the month. Rosters will be trimmed to 35 players by early December, with final roster decisions due in February. Countries are not required (and typically will not) release these early names.

Days after the initial roster deadline, however, the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCBS) released a statement claiming that “they weren’t formally invited to complete this process because MLB had not received approval from the U.S. government to have Cuba participate”.

To some, as Yusseff Diaz at The Cuban Baseball Digest writes, the victim-like rhetoric coming from the FCBS is nothing new — and likely much ado about nothing in the end (he also points out that Cuba was late submitting their rosters for the 2023 WBC, citing some similar reasons).

Further reports suggest that Spain is being considered as a favorite to replace Cuba in the tournament, though representatives from the Royal Spanish Baseball Federation say they have not been contacted yet. There are rumblings, however, that Fanatics has started working on uniform branding for Spain’s inclusion in March’s tournament. Spain has only qualified for one WBC, going 0-3 in 2013.

Efforts to bring an MLB expansion team to Orlando appear to have taken a significant hit this past week, as a second principal investor in the Orlando Dreamers is withdrawing from the project. While stating his plans to step back from the project, attorney John Morgan confirmed to Orlando news station WESH 2 that anchor investor Dr. Rick Workman has joined the investment group led by real estate developer Patrick Zapulski to purchase the Tampa Bay Rays.

That sale is expected to close later this month.

Morgan was candid in his thoughts on Orlando’s chances at landing an expansion team:

Morgan had committed to investing as much as $250 million in the project as recently as July. He has zero interest in joining the Tampa ownership group.

Team USA has continued to play well at the U-18 World Cup. The team closed out the opening round of the tournament with a 5-0 record in pool play. The top three teams from each pool moved on to the Super Round, where the US is now 2-1 after dropping an extra-innings matchup against undefeated Japan on Thursday.

The US team plays Korea and Puerto Rico in their next two games. If they can win both, it should ensure a rematch with Japan in the gold medal game on Sunday.

Players from the US squad appear throughout the tournament leaderboards.

Thursday marked the 24th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and, in less positive national news, The Supreme Cheeto (trademark pending, but not really) was in attendance for the series finale between the Yankees and Tigers at Yankee Stadium.

For unknown reasons, The Cheeto was invited into the Yankees clubhouse to meet the team pre-game (and take a group photo; it does not appear the Tigers were “afforded” the same courtesy). Intrepid sleuths on social media have confirmed that a handful of players were absent from the photo, seemingly on purpose. That list (not of heroes, but they definitely earned some extra fan points) includes: Giancarlo Stanton, Ben Rice, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Trent Grisham, Fernando Cruz, Cody Bellinger, Luis Gil, Cam Schlitter (who may have been out in the bullpen warming up to start the game), Devin Williams, and Luke Weaver.

A pregame ceremony was held in honor of the 9/11 anniversary, which was promptly followed by Yankee Stadium filling with boos when The Cheeto was shown on the video board during the national anthem.

Just for emphasis, I’ll restate that:

A crowd of New Yorkers booed during the national anthem on the anniversary of the greatest attack on the city simply because one “man” was in the building.

The first thirteen and a half years of my life were spent living in New York State. I’ve moved more than a few times since, so it’s been a long time since I’ve thought of myself as a New Yorker … but this one makes me a little proud.

More good: MLB allowed the two New York teams to wear first responder hats during Thursday’s games.

Meanwhile, the game itself featured more fireworks.

Aaron Judge entered the day with 359 career home runs, having just passed Yogi Berra on the franchise career home runs list two days ago. Judge homered in the first inning against lefty Tyler Holton. Judge then homered again in his second at-bat in the third inning against righty Sawyer Gipson-Long.

The pair of homers now puts him in a tie for fourth on the all-time list with Joe DiMaggio. Only Babe Ruth (714), Mickey Mantle (536), and Lou Gehrig (493) remain ahead of him.

Two batters after Judge’s DiMaggio-tying blast, Giancarlo Stanton hit his 449th career home run, tying him with a pair of Hall of Famers (Jeff Bagwell and Vladimir Guerrero Sr.) for 41st all-time.

Stanton’s blast was also his 20th of the season, giving the Yankees seven players with 20 or more home runs (Judge, Grisham, Bellinger, Chisholm, Rice, Wells, Stanton). This is the third time the Yankees have tied that mark as a franchise (having also done so in 2009 and 2019). Anthony Volpe sits just one homer away from making it eight players (which would tie the MLB record set by the 2019 Twins).

Baseball United — a new four-team professional league that will run from Nov. 14 to Dec. 14, with games played at Dubai’s Barry Larkin Field — has started to release rosters for its inaugural season.

The Mid East Falcons were the first team to do so on Tuesday, with a pair of former MLB players on the roster (albeit two players who are now in their 40s). Outfielder Alejander De Aza appeared in 838 games over a 10-year career with seven different teams, hitting a combined .260/.325/.396 (96 OPS+), before spending six more seasons playing in the independent Atlantic League, batting .306/.400/.468. Infielder Munenori Kawasaki joins him on the Falcons. Kawasaki hit .237/.320/.289 (72 OPS+) over his five seasons in the majors with three teams, but was a .292/.344/.376 hitter during his 12 seasons in Japan.

The Arabia Wolves followed suit on Thursday. Their roster has just one player with MLB experience, right-hander Akeem Bostick. The 30-year-old appeared in just one game in his career, pitching a scoreless inning for the Mets in 2021. The former 2nd-round pick by the Rangers in the 2013 Draft posted a 4.62 ERA over 656.0 minor league innings in his career (across eight seasons), and then pitched another four seasons in the independent leagues.

The Mumbai Cobras are expected to announce their inaugural roster on Friday. The Karachi Monarchs aren’t expected to reveal theirs until Sept. 17.