Seattle Mariners star Julio Rodriguez was officially announced as a member of the Dominican Republic roster for the upcoming World Baseball Classic, which begins on March 4.

This will be Rodriguez's second time playing for the Dominican at the WBC (2023). He also represented his home nation at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were played in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We already knew that Rodriguez was going to play, but insurance issues have come into play for some players and some teams, so this official announcement likely signifies that all the necessary insurance requirements were met.

Rodriguez is the fourth member of the Mariners to officially get announced for the WBC, joining Cal Raleigh and Gabe Speier (Team USA) and Randy Arozarena (Mexico).

It is expected that more Mariners players will participate as long as the insurance goes through. The official rosters for the WBC are announced next Thursday. Twenty nations are competing for the gold medal, which was won by Japan in 2023.

Andres Munoz (Mexico), Michael Arroyo (Colombia), Eduard Bazardo (Venezuela) and Dominic Canzone (Italy) are all candidates to play. Matt Brash and Josh Naylor are both reportedly playing for Team Canada, but official announcements are not out yet on that front.

The event began in 2006 and this will be the sixth iteration. Japan won in 2006 and 2009 while the Dominican Republic won in 2013. Team USA won in 2017 and Japan won again in 2023, beating Team USA.

1) The primary concern about player participation in the World Baseball Classic is injury. We saw then-New York Mets closer Edwin Diaz miss an entire season because of a knee injury suffered in the 2023 WBC. Former M's pitcher Drew Smyly underwent Tommy John surgery as a result of his participation in a prior event.

2) Mariners players will leave camp in order to play, leaving a large gap in Mariners spring training. It will limit some of the leadership in camp and give opportunities for other players to step up. It will also give opportunities for younger players and fringe roster guys to earn more playing time.

You can see by the list of non-roster invitees that the M's released on Friday that there are a lot of prospects coming to spring training, possibly as a result of the opportunities that will arise because of the WBC participants leaving.

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