19 Cardinal Players Named to 2023 WBC Rosters

19 CARDINALS PLAYERS NAMED TO 2023 WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC ROSTERS

2022 NL MVP Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, Adam Wainwright & Miles Mikolas Will Compete For Team USA

ST. LOUIS, Mo., February 10, 2023 – The St. Louis Cardinals announced, in conjunction with the unveiling of the final rosters last evening on MLB Network, that 19 players from the organization have been named to 2023 World Baseball Classic team rosters, the most of any Major League team.

The 19 players, 13 of which have played in the Major Leagues, will represent 11 of the 20 participating countries, including multiple representatives for Team USA, Colombia, Great Britain, Mexico, and Panama. Each team roster includes up to 30 active players, including at least 14 pitchers and two catchers. In addition, federations may identify a designated pool of up to eight additional pitchers who are eligible to participate in one or more consecutive rounds.

Thirteen players from the Cardinals 40-player roster will take part in the fifth edition of the World Baseball Classic including pitchers Génesis Cabrera (Dominican Republic), Giovanny Gallegos (Mexico), Miles Mikolas (United States), Andre Pallante (Italy), JoJo Romero (Mexico), Adam Wainwright (United States), and Guillermo Zuniga (Colombia); catcher Iván Herrera (Panama); infielders Nolan Arenado (United States), Tommy Edman (Korea), and Paul Goldschmidt (United States); and outfielders Lars Nootbaar (Japan) and Tyler O’Neill (Canada).

Six Cardinals minor leaguers have also been named to WBC rosters, including OF L.J. Jones (Panama), RHP Joseph King (Great Britain), OF Matt Koperniak (Great Britain), INF Noah Mendlinger (Israel), OF Oscar Mercado (Colombia), and RHP Wilfredo Pereira (Panama).

Other roster selections of note include Lars Nootbaar, who becomes the first non-Japanese born player to be selected to play and represent Japan’s national team (eligible to play for Japan through his mother, who is of Japanese descent) and Tommy Edman, who becomes the first non-Korean native to play for the county (eligible to play for Korea through his mother, who was born in South Korea).

This will be the second World Baseball Classic experience for Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt, Giovanny Gallegos, Óscar Mercado, and Tyler O’Neill, each of whom participated for their respective countries in the most recent WBC competition in 2017. Arenado and Goldschmidt were both a part of the 2017 championship winning United States team, with Arenado starting at third base (2-for-5, two runs) in the American’s 8-0 win over Puerto Rico at Dodger Stadium.

The 2023 WBC will see the field of teams expand to 20 for the first time in the tournament’s history and will feature five-team pools in the first round for round-robin play. The top two teams in each of the four first round pools will advance to the quarterfinals, while the top two teams from each quarterfinal pool will advance to the Championship Round to be played on March 19-21.

A full list of the 19 St. Louis Cardinals players participating in the 2023 World Baseball Classic can be found below.

— STL —

FED	Player	Org.	40-Man	Pos.	Final Roster
USA	Arenado, Nolan	STL	Yes	2B	Yes
DOM	Cabrera, Génesis	STL	Yes	LHR	Pitcher Pool
KOR	Edman, Tommy	STL	Yes	3B	Yes
MEX	Gallegos, Giovanny	STL	Yes	RHR	Yes
USA	Goldschmidt, Paul	STL	Yes	1B	Yes
PAN	Herrera, Iván	STL	Yes	C	Yes
PAN	Jones, Leonard (LJ)	STL	No	OF	Yes
GBR	King, Joseph	STL	No	RHS	Yes
GBR	Koperniak, Matt	STL	No	RF	Yes
ISR	Mendlinger, Noah	STL	No	3B	Yes
COL	Mercado, Óscar	STL	No	CF	Yes
USA	Mikolas, Miles	STL	Yes	RHS	Yes
JPN	Nootbaar, Lars	STL	Yes	OF	Yes
CAN	O’Neill, Tyler	STL	Yes	LF	Yes
ITA	Pallante, Neil (Andre)	STL	Yes	RHS	Yes
PAN	Pereira, Wilfredo	STL	No	RHS	Yes
MEX	Romero, Joseph (JoJo)	STL	Yes	LHR	Yes
USA	Wainwright, Adam	STL	Yes	RHS	Yes
COL	Zuniga, Guillermo	STL	Yes	RHS	Yes