Managers brace for stars’ absence, hope for the best

NORTH PORT, Fla. — Brian Snitker says he’s not planning to obsess over the World Baseball Classic. The Atlanta Braves manager has his own team to worry about while Ronald Acuña Jr. and others are trying to win the seven games necessary to claim the title. He will not decide when or where Acuña hits in Venezuela’s lineup. He will not be there to wonder whether his star is taking too many swings or needs a day off.

Because for the next two weeks, Snitker and his colleagues around Major League Baseball will be watching somewhat helplessly as their stars get the rare chance to represent their countries, stuck hoping that playing competitive games so soon will not disrupt those players’ routines.

He and managers around Florida and Arizona waved goodbye to those stars Monday, hoping all of them will be healthy when they return.

“I’ll keep up with them and see how they’re doing,” Snitker said Sunday, the last day he will write Acuña’s name into a spring training lineup until the electric outfielder — a key to Atlanta’s World Series hopes — returns.

Sure, he talked to Venezuela Manager Omar López when López, the Houston Astros’ first base coach, was in town for a game last week. He will chat with Puerto Rico Manager Yadier Molina, who will be borrowing 2021 World Series hero Eddie Rosario, next week when the Braves host the Puerto Rican team in an exhibition game.

“We’re sending guys to people I really trust to take care of them,” Snitker said, and that probably does help alleviate concern. The Braves initially did not grant Acuña permission to play. He missed their 2021 World Series run with a torn ACL. He limped into last year’s postseason with lingering knee pain. Better safe than sorry.

But Acuña wanted to play. He said so publicly all winter. So eventually, Atlanta let him. Teams need to keep their stars happy.

Stars need to play in the stillyoung tournament to provide long-term interest and viability. But MLB teams need their stars to make the championship runs their team owners pay for, their fans invest in and on which everyone’s jobs depend.

“I’m always worried,” Los Angeles Angels General Manager Perry Minasian said last month, and how could he not be?

Minasian will watch two of the best players in the world, two of the most carefully monitored and supervised bodies in baseball — two of the players most crucial to the success of his tenure in Anaheim — lead their countries.

Future Hall of Famer Mike Trout, slowed by a back injury in recent seasons, will captain Team USA. And global fascination Shohei Ohtani, the Angels’ scheduled Opening Day starter, will lead Japan in its title defense.

“Guys can get hurt just as easy in a spring training game as they can in the WBC,” Minasian said. “To me, I trust our players.”

The problem with players, even the most cautious or conscientious, is their competitiveness. Would Ohtani really pull himself from a start with a high pitch count in a big moment with Japan’s tournament fate on the line? Would Trout or Acuña or anyone be able to tell themselves not to dive for a ball in the outfield if a catch would save runs in an elimination game? And even if they could, would thinking about being cautious have a deleterious effect in itself ?

Baltimore Orioles and Team USA outfielder Cedric Mullins admitted he did not know exactly what the process would be like for managing workloads or handling soreness in the midst of a global tournament. He said conversations with his manager, Brandon Hyde, and others left him thinking it will feel something like “a second spring training.”

“You just know you’re getting into competitive games a lot sooner. I think the main priority if you’re doing that is health,” Mullins said. “I just have to make sure the body feels good again, make sure you’re not going too crazy, because you have 162-plus after that.”*