The World Baseball Classic has produced something of a conundrum from players who want to represent their country but also know they have a season to get ready for. New York Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard, however, doesn’t see any conflict.
When asked if he wished he was participating in the 2017 edition of the WBC, Syndergaard’s answer was unequivocally a no.
Noah Syndergaard with some honesty about the WBC. I find this refreshing: pic.twitter.com/QiV7XEcUOg
— Marc Carig (@MarcCarig) March 3, 2017
It’s hard to blame Syndergaard. Can you name the winner of the most recent WBC? The answer is the Dominican Republic in 2013, in case you couldn’t. The competition has never become a really alluring or memorable one, and the U.S. teams haven’t had a ton of success, either, which hasn’t helped, at least from an American perspective. Ultimately, virtually every MLB player would rather win a World Series than the WBC. Syndergaard is simply prioritizing accordingly, and has been doing so since the end of the 2016 season.
