Bogaerts to represent the Netherlands in World Baseball Classic

Four Red Sox players have been added to the provisional rosters for the World Baseball Classic, including top prospect Xander Bogaerts, who will be playing for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In addition to Bogaerts, major leaguers Shane Victorino and Alfredo Aceves will play for Team USA and Mexico, respectively, while reliever Jose De La Torre is on the Puerto Rico roster.

Bogaerts is part of a stacked infield for the Netherlands, which also features shortstops Jurickson Profar of the Texas Rangers and Andrelton Simmons of the Atlanta Braves. This means he is likely to play a position other than shortstop in the tournament, with early signs pointing to third base. Bogaerts, who also reportedly received a non-roster invitation to major league camp today, will report to Fort Myers by February 13 and then leave to join the Dutch National Team before pool play starts on March 2. 

In addition to the four players listed above, several other former Red Sox farmhands are on the provisional rosters. They are listed below:

Mitch Dening: Australia
Iago Januario: Brazil 

Ray Chang: China
Che-Hsuan Lin: Chinese Taipei

Hanley Ramirez: Dominican Republic
Anthony Rizzo: Italy

Miguel Gonzalez: Mexico
Luis Mendoza: Mexico
Fernando Cabrera: Puerto Rico

Nelson Figueroa: Puerto Rico
Javier Lopez: Puerto Rico

Ivan De Jesus: Puerto Rico

Engel Beltre: Spain

Anibal Sanchez: Venezuela 

Photo Credit: Xander Bogaerts by Kelly O'Connor

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