Venezuela Manager Defied MLB Team Limits to Win World Baseball Classic

Venezuela's manager successfully negotiated with MLB teams to lift pitcher restrictions during the World Baseball Classic championship game. This allowed closer Daniel Palencia to pitch three times in four days, helping secure Venezuela's first WBC title with a 3-2 victory over Team USA.

MIAMI — The manager of Venezuela’s national baseball team went to extraordinary lengths to secure his country’s first World Baseball Classic championship, successfully challenging restrictions imposed by Major League Baseball organizations.

MLB franchises typically impose strict guidelines on how their players can be utilized by national team managers during the WBC tournament. Venezuela’s skipper Omar López managed to convince several MLB front offices to remove their initial player usage constraints, while Team USA manager Mark DeRosa chose to honor such limitations.

This negotiation proved crucial as it enabled López to deploy Chicago Cubs reliever Daniel Palencia on consecutive nights and for the third appearance in a four-game span. Palencia struck out three consecutive batters to secure Venezuela’s 3-2 championship victory.

“I woke this morning, three text messages from different organizations trying not to pitch guys back to back,” López explained prior to Tuesday’s title game. “One of my strengths is talk, and I send my text back fighting for my guys and then set a phone call with everybody. When you talk and you get an agreement, you negotiate it, everything is going to go well.”

Following the successful negotiations, López expressed relief about his options.

“I have my guys tonight to go back to back if I need to, and that’s the most important thing,” he stated.

In contrast, DeRosa chose not to utilize Mason Miller, considered among baseball’s elite relievers, due to a commitment made to the San Diego Padres regarding usage only in save opportunities. The 27-year-old right-hander had rested Monday following a 22-pitch performance in Sunday’s ninth inning during a 2-1 victory against the Dominican Republic, where his fastball reached an average of 101 mph.

Following Bryce Harper’s two-run home run that evened the score at 2-2 in the eighth inning against Venezuela, DeRosa selected Boston’s Garrett Whitlock to begin the ninth frame. Whitlock issued a walk to Luis Arraez, and substitute runner Javier Sanoja successfully stole second base. Sanoja crossed home plate when Eugenio Suárez delivered a double to the left-center field gap on a full-count changeup.

“Honoring the Padres,” DeRosa explained regarding Miller’s absence from the game. “Had we taken the lead, he was coming in, but I wasn’t going to bring him in to a tie game.”

Since Team USA batted in the bottom half of each inning as the designated home team, no save opportunity could materialize once the ninth inning began with the score tied.

“I wanted to honor the fact that there was a situation there where, if it was tied, we were going to use Whitlock,” DeRosa said. “We had talked to the Red Sox about that. And if we had the lead, we were going to use Mason.”

The 26-year-old right-handed Palencia required only 13 pitches to complete a flawless ninth inning during Saturday’s 8-6 quarterfinal triumph over Japan, recording two strikeouts and concluding the contest by retiring Shohei Ohtani on a fly ball.

He delivered 15 additional pitches Sunday during a perfect top of the ninth that completed a 4-2 victory against Italy.

In the championship game against Team USA, Palencia needed merely 11 pitches, bringing his three-game total to 39 throws. He struck out Kyle Schwarber using a 98.5 mph four-seam fastball, generated a popup from pinch-hitter Gunnar Henderson, and delivered a 99.7 mph fastball past Roman Anthony for the championship-clinching strikeout.

Palencia’s fastball speed averaged 98.1 mph versus Team USA, a decrease from 99.3 mph against Italy and 98.8 mph against Japan, though it remained effective enough for victory.

Across the three contests, he threw 30 fastballs, seven sliders, and two splitters, achieving 26 strikes against 13 balls.

“With that fastball, it is not easy to have good control, but I train that with my coaches in Venezuela,” he commented during the tournament. “I trained like a sprinter because I learned that it is about velocity, the capability of the muscle to move.”