First baseman Paul Goldschmidt did his due diligence before agreeing to play in the World Baseball Classic, wanting to be as certain as possible that participation in next month’s tournament wouldn’t take away from his preparation for the regular season.
“I called guys that had done it in the past and a lot of them said you’re even more ready because you’ve played in some more high-stakes games rather than just spring training games and the competition is higher,” Goldschmidt said. “So I took it as a positive getting to play with and against some of the best players in the world.