New York Yankees reliever Tyler Clippard will play for Team USA
The WBC just announced its team rosters and New York Yankees’ reliever Tyler Clippard will represent team USA.
New York Yankees reliever Tyler Clippard will participate in the 2017 World Baseball Classic and represent Team USA.
The international baseball tournament’s official Twitter page made the roster announcements on Wednesday, showing Clippard’s name alongside former Yankee relievers Andrew Miller and David Robertson on the United States’ roster.
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Clippard returned to the Yankees, the team that drafted him in 2003, from the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2016 and pitched to a 2.49 ERA in 25.1 innings. He struck out 9.2 batters per nine innings.
Richard Bleier (Israel) Luis Severino (Dominican Republic), Tommy Layne (Italy), Didi Gregorius (Netherlands) and Dellin Betances (Dominican Republic), one of Clippard’s bullpen battery mates, will also join the WBC.
Going by what happened to Mark Teixeira back in 2013, I’m certain members of New York’s front office are keeping their fingers crossed that neither of their two prominent relievers go down with devastating injuries this spring.
With a massive dependency on the elite bullpen led by Aroldis Chapman, injuries are the last thing this unit needs.
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Two other members of the Yankees — Masahiro Tanaka and Gary Sanchez — pulled out of their commitments to join their respective countries in this year’s tournament.
Here’s what the rest of Team USA’s roster looks like:
Check out @USABaseball's #WBC2017 roster and RETWEET for a chance at an official Team USA jersey! #ForGlory🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/QBQcSBOqeC
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) February 8, 2017
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— World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) February 8, 2017
Christian Kouroupakis covers the New York Yankees and is the Editorial Director for ESNY. Interact with him and view his daily work by “liking” his facebook page and follow him on Twitter. All statistics are courtesy of Baseball Reference.com unless otherwise noted. Don’t hesitate to shoot him an email with any questions, criticisms, or concerns.
