Justin Willard

And really, I think the focus is on where are you and how are you being intentional to get ready for this game.

Not that I've been made aware of yet, but again, it's still early.

So yeah.

Yeah, I've gone back and forth and probably still don't have a –

a clear understanding of what I truly believe in here.

Like, first of all, as a organization, you want to have your best players performing for the team throughout the entire year.

Like, does this hurt that?

Maybe.

I don't think there's any clear answers there.

Like, when I was with the Twins, we had Pablo Lopez, who went and pitched in the World Baseball Classic and shoved for, what was it, seven or eight innings.

And you're sitting there like, yeah, this is a really cool experience for him.

But like, hey, is this going to affect what shows up in August or September?

We don't know.

Right.

We have no answers.

But it's actually it's funny.

I was actually talking this about this with Bernie throughout the season.

Like, this is just a really cool opportunity for any player or coach or staff member, because it's very rare that you get the opportunity to represent your country doing something you love and enjoy and kind of

um sacrifice your your normal life for um so like there is a lot of value there as players of like it's it's an incredible experience that they may not get ever again where they get to represent their country and have the support of their country to do these things right again like jose de leon is actually a perfect example oh it's a great example he was with the twins as well and he's pitching for puerto rico and punches out 111 and like that's probably the highlight of that guy's life um

So, like, you never want to take those opportunities away from guys.