{"id":390424,"date":"2026-01-05T22:16:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T22:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/390424\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T22:16:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T22:16:36","slug":"as-venezuela-pauses-winter-baseball-mlb-teams-keep-tabs-on-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/390424\/","title":{"rendered":"As Venezuela pauses winter baseball, MLB teams keep tabs on players"},"content":{"rendered":"

For now, the instability in Venezuela following the United States\u2019 attack on Caracas<\/a> has had minimal impact on Major League Baseball, thanks largely to the timing of president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s capture and transfer to New York, where on Jan. 5 he pleaded not guilty<\/a> to drug trafficking charges.<\/p>\n

Still, there are immediate affects in Venezuela and bigger-picture concerns as the game\u2019s calendar drifts toward February.<\/p>\n

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The Liga Venezolana de B\u00e9isbol Profesional postponed its playoffs following the raid in the early morning hours of Jan. 3, and announced competition is scheduled to resume<\/a> Wednesday, Jan. 7 after a four-day delay.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, major league teams are aiming to keep connected to personnel there.<\/p>\n

“We created a player and staff chat making sure everyone is safe and to keep communication fluid,” Chicago White Sox<\/a> general manager Chris Getz told USA TODAY Sports. “It’s all been positive in regard to safety.<\/p>\n

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“Obviously, there’s some anxiety with the unknowns, but people seem optimistic better days are ahead for their families.”<\/p>\n

Venezuela’s winter ball playoffs \u2013 a five-team, 16-game round-robin tournament \u2013 run through January and several MLB players are participating, most notably Milwaukee Brewers<\/a> outfielder Jackson Chourio, who hit a game-winning home run for his club, Aguilas del Zulia, just hours before the raid on Caracas began.<\/p>\n

1 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

Since 2000, future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols’ 101.3 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) leads all players, with Alex Rodriguez tied for second ways back at 89.7 WAR. See the rest of the top 25.<\/p>\n

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1 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

Since 2000, future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols’ 101.3 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) leads all players, with Alex Rodriguez tied for second ways back at 89.7 WAR. See the rest of the top 25.<\/p>\n

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2 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

2. Alex Rodriguez – 89.7<\/p>\n

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3 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

3. Adrian Beltre – 89.7<\/p>\n

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4 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

4. Mike Trout – 87.5<\/p>\n

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5 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

5. Justin Verlander – 82.2<\/p>\n

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6 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

6. Clayton Kershaw – 78.1<\/p>\n

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7 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

7. Mookie Betts – 75.2<\/p>\n

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8 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

8. Max Scherzer – 74.7<\/p>\n

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9 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

9. Zack Greinke – 72.4<\/p>\n

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10 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

10. Robinson Cano – 68.7<\/p>\n

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11 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

11. Miguel Cabrera – 67.2<\/p>\n

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12 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

12. Carlos Beltran – 65.1<\/p>\n

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13 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

13. Chase Utley – 64.6<\/p>\n

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14 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

14. Freddie Freeman – 64.2<\/p>\n

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15 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

15. Paul Goldschmidt – 63.8<\/p>\n

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16 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

16. Joey Votto – 63.6<\/p>\n

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17 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

17. Roy Halladay – 62.4<\/p>\n

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18 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

18. Aaron Judge – 62.3<\/p>\n

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19 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

19. CC Sabathia – 61.8<\/p>\n

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20 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

20. Manny Machado – 61.7<\/p>\n

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21 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

21. Ichiro Suzuki – 60<\/p>\n

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22 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

22. Mark Buehrle – 60<\/p>\n

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23 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

23. Barry Bonds – 59.1<\/p>\n

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24 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

24. Evan Longoria – 58.9<\/p>\n

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25 \/ 25<\/p>\n

Top 25 MLB players from 2000-2025 ranked by Wins Above Replacement<\/p>\n

25. Chipper Jones – 58.3<\/p>\n

Like many MLB players participating in winter leagues throughout the Caribbean, Chourio was scheduled to play just a portion of the postseason for his club before preparing in earnest for the Brewers\u2019 2026 season. Major league spring training camps begin opening Feb. 9, though both domestic and international players often begin working out at or near their facilities far sooner.<\/p>\n

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Chourio was one of 63 Venezuelan players on major league opening-day rosters, the largest foreign-born contingent behind the Dominican Republic\u2019s 100 players.<\/p>\n

“We don\u2019t have much info at the moment but are trying to follow up,” Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel<\/a>, part of the USA TODAY Network, via a team spokesperson. “We know the airports have been shut down but not much beyond that.”<\/p>\n

Travel to and from Venezuela has grown more complex in the past quarter-century, beginning with greater scrutiny of passports and visas in the wake of 9\/11. In 2002, a general strike and brief overthrow of then-president Hugo Chavez roiled Venezuela, and many veteran ballplayers and MLB personnel from Venezuela have opted to relocate to the USA.<\/p>\n

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Hall of Fame-caliber players such as Miguel Cabrera and Salvador Perez have become U.S. citizens, but for younger players, travel between the countries has grown increasingly difficult. The U.S. ended diplomatic relations with Venezuela \u2013 closing its embassy \u2013 in 2019, and players must seek visas from neighboring Colombia or other Latin American countries.<\/p>\n

As a result of such complications, MLB franchises are accustomed to keeping close tabs on players and staff in Venezuela during the winter, a protocol that gained greater urgency this month. Venezuela is slated to compete in the World Baseball Classic beginning in March, with catcher Perez serving as team captain. National stars Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. and Jose Altuve have expressed interest in returning to the squad, according to MLB.com. Venezuela is scheduled to begin its WBC slate with a March 6 game against the Netherlands in Pool D, at Miami\u2019s LoanDepot Park.<\/p>\n

Contributing: Bob Nightengale<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Venezuela winter baseball shutdown has MLB monitoring talent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For now, the instability in Venezuela following the United States\u2019 attack on Caracas has had minimal impact on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,3961,165607,144250,78915,41056,501,6390,165608,493,462,165606,8292,3999,82,20147],"class_list":["post-390424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-chris-getz","tag-international-players","tag-jackson-chourio","tag-jose-altuve","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-miami","tag-miguel-cabrera","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-players","tag-ronald-acuna-jr","tag-salvador-perez","tag-sports","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}