Team Dominican Republic features New York Yankees catcher Austin Wells in their lineup at the World Baseball Classic. Wells hit in front of Geraldo Perdomo in their tournament opener.
Wells was born and went to college in Arizona.
Wells’s Eligibility Explained
Wells could have played for Team USA if manager Mark DeRosa had called him. Some players are eligible to play for more than one country.
Nolan Arenado has played in more than one iteration of the WBC for Team USA, but is part of Team Puerto Rico this time around. Adam Ottavino is playing for Team Italy after previously playing for the USA. Marcus Stroman, who won the WBC MVP for Team USA in 2017, played for Puerto Rico the next time around.
Being allowed to play for more than one country is not guaranteed. You must prove yourself eligible. Aroldis Chapman failed to do that with Great Britain.
WBC Eligibility Rules
The easiest way for a player to be eligible to play for a country in the WBC is if he’s a citizen of said country with a valid passport. You can even be eligible to play for the country you were born in, even if you didn’t grow up there. Eligibility goes beyond yourself, though.
If at least one parent is or was a citizen of a country, you are eligible to represent that country in the WBC even if you have never lived there and don’t have a passport for that country. Even if the parent was born in that country and never lived there full-time, the player is eligible.
Arenado was eligible to play for Puerto Rico because his mother is Puerto Rican. That same parental connection is how Wells is eligible to play for the Dominican Republic in the WBC.
Wells’s Dominican Connection
Wells’s mother, Michelle, is Dominican, as both of her parents were born in the Dominican Republic. This, thanks to the WBC’s eligibility rules, allows Wells to play for the Dominican team, even though he is not a citizen and has never lived there. Even if Wells had never set foot in the Dominican Republic prior to this tournament, he’d be eligible to play for the team thanks to his mother.
“My mom’s parents are Dominican, so that’s how I’m connected there. Obviously very excited about this opportunity. Have a lot of family still down here in the Dominican, so it’s been a really cool couple of months leading up to this,” Wells said when discussing his Dominican Republic WBC eligibility.
He might not look Dominican or speak the best Spanish.