Miguel Rojas announced last week that he would be unable to participate in the World Baseball Classic because of issues obtaining insurance on his MLB contract.
And during the Dodgers’ annual Fanfest event on Saturday, the Venezuelan infielder didn’t hide his frustration with the situation.
“Definitely disappointed,” said Rojas, who has never before played in the WBC and is set to retire after this season. “I didn’t know that my chance to go represent my country for the first and only time, probably as a player, was gonna get blocked because of an insurance problem. Even though we know we have to be ready for the season and we have to play and be healthy for our contract, at the end of the day, we didn’t know all those restrictions were gonna be in place the way they are right now.”
Indeed, Rojas is far from the only player to encounter insurance problems related to this spring’s WBC.
Team Puerto Rico has had several key players who were forced to withdraw –– including Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa, José Berrios and Emilio Pagan –– leading the president of its baseball federation to publicly float the idea that the country might withdraw from the triannual tournament entirely.
Venezuela has also been significantly impacted, with José Altuve and Carlos Narvaez unable to participate due to their own insurance issues.
There are several other MLB players believed to be awaiting insurance clearance, too.
“There’s a lot of things I can say about the process, and I’ve been really vocal on social media, especially the last couple days,” Rojas said. “I don’t think people understand.”
Insurance requirements have long been a complication for players interested in playing in the WBC. The policies are generally necessary for MLB participants, in order to protect their big-league teams against potential injuries incurred during the event (with insurance, teams are reimbursed for any regular-season time their players miss with WBC-related injuries).
Typically, players with chronic injury histories or recent surgeries are denied coverage. Clayton Kershaw, for example, had to withdraw from the 2023 WBC for insurance reasons.
This year, however, the growing number of players who have encountered such issues has become a source of frustration –– especially, as Rojas noted, since Latin American countries have been the ones most affected.
“I don’t see that happening with the United States, or happening with Japan,” Rojas said. “And I’m not trying to attack anybody, or attack what’s going on, or seeing what’s happening behind the scenes. But at the end of the day, it feels like it’s just happening with the players that want to represent their country from Latin America. So there’s a lot of things I would like to talk about with someone in control, with someone from MLB.”
Rojas, who has dealt with several injuries over the past couple of years (including a hernia surgery last offseason) but didn’t spend any time on the injured list in 2025, was also caught off guard by what ESPN reported is a new provision for insurance coverage in this year’s event.
Because he will turn 37 before the start of the tournament, he said he was denied coverage based on his age alone.
“It’s really hard to not have the opportunity to put my country on my chest and to represent them and help win a World Baseball Classic –– and not have the opportunity to do it because I’m 37 years old,” he said. “That’s not right. I don’t feel it’s right. Because if I can still play in the big leagues with the Dodgers, why (can I) not go play for my team in Venezuela and represent my country?”
