The Cincinnati Reds organization will have four players participating in the upcoming World Baseball Classic according to C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Big leaguers Jumbo Diaz (Dominican Republic) and Scott Feldman (Israel) headline the group of Reds. On the minor league side of things it’s Dilson Herrera that heads things. He will be playing for his home country of Colombia. Free agent signee and minor league catcher Shawn Zarraga will play for the Netherlands.
It’s good news to see Dilson Herrera on Team Colombia. Last season, shortly after arriving into the Cincinnati Reds organization, he was shut down due to a shoulder injury. The second baseman played in 24 games for Triple-A Louisville, hitting .266/.372/.422 for the Bats despite the injury. The fact that he’s healthy enough to make the roster and get the approval from the organization is a good sign.
Where that could work against him is that if Colombia plays well in the World Baseball Classic, Herrera will not see much time with the Reds in the spring. While it’s unlikely he would be playing for a roster spot given the make up of the roster, getting time on the field certainly wouldn’t hurt anything and would probably help him in the long run. Of course, playing for your country isn’t something that you get to do often, so from his perspective it makes perfect sense to miss out on some big league time in the spring.
Shawn Zarraga is a non-roster invitee to big league camp. He isn’t likely competing for a spot on the big league roster. He has been been a minor league back up catcher for most of his career. Over the last two seasons he’s played in 62 and 46 games at the minor league level. In 2016 he only had 152 plate appearances, in part due to missing over two months from April through June. He spent one day in the big leagues in 2016, but never got into the game.