Why The WBC Doesn’t Work – And How It Failed The Mets

Everyone has an opinion on the WBC. Some love it, more hate it, and the rest fall somewhere in between.

Me, I WAS one of those “in betweens.” I tolerated the tournament.

I was fine with the WBC being held in March…as long as players on MLB rosters didn’t have their preparation affected by their participation.

But now that’s precisely what has happened, and because of it, the WBC must be completely overhauled if not done away with entirely. Met fans, unfortunately you’re the one’s affected by the WBC. And it’s going to hit you where you hurt the most, the starting rotation.

It seems Oliver Perez, one of the most temperamental players in the league, doesn’t think he’s had enough time to get ready for the season because he played for Mexico in the WBC (this isn't just about Perez, of course. Lots of teams have gotten players back from the WBC in worse condition than when they left, but Ollie is NY's best example).

Perez pitched only twice in a 19-day span during his time with Mexico. Since his return to the Mets, Ollie’s thrown a total of eight and two-thirds innings, including a six run, five hit, six walk clunker yesterday.

Perez admitted today that he’s behind the rest of the rotation and has only two more spring starts to get ready for the season. For a guy who is known as a serial head case, he’s the LAST player on the Mets roster I’d want thinking to himself "I'm not ready to play."

The Mets have the WBC to thank for that. Perez said that during those 19 days with Mexico, the team didn’t do “all the exercises we do here. You just run and go to the stadium and pitch.”

You can bet that if Perez was in Port St. Lucie instead of with team Mexico, the Mets’ coaching staff would have been doting on him 24/7, analyzing every aspect of his training.

Instead Ollie was in the hands of a staff that viewed him as a rental player, only interested in his development and well-being over the course of the WBC. Sure, they say there is SOME dialogue between the MLB team and the national team during the WBC, but how furious do you think the Mets were when they watched Perez throw 85 pitches against South Korea in his 2nd start of the tournament??

Now the Mets are left with VERY limited time to nurture their biggest wild card back to game speed. This was the one guy the Mets really needed to make sure was good to go for opening day, and the WBC prevented them from doing that.

It’ll be interesting to see how Ollie performs in his first few starts of the season.

Well, interesting for those of us critical of the WBC….it could be potentially nauseating for Met fans.

Matt Estreich for The Huddle