Israel’s World Baseball Classic team to be headlined by Harrison Bader, Dean Kremer

With the World Baseball Classic exactly one month away, twenty nations, including Israel, the US, Venezuela, Japan and Italy revealed their 30-man rosters on Thursday.

The sixth edition of the international tournament will take place in Houston, Miami, Tokyo and San Juan from March 5 to March 17.

Team Israel, which qualified by winning a game in the 2023 edition, will feature several Major League Baseball Players, including San Francisco Giants outfielder Harrison Bader, who is perhaps the highest-profile addition, and Baltimore Orioles pitcher Dean Kremer, who made history in 2015 as the first Israeli to be drafted by a Major League team.

Playing alongside Bader and Kramer will be two MLB pitchers new to Team Israel: Tommy Kahnle, who is currently a free agent, and Matt Bowman, who has pitched in the major league and recently signed a minor league contract with the Minnesota Twins.

Bowman’s father-in-law is Jeremy Levin, the Israeli-American former CEO of Teva Pharmaceuticals, who has contributed to Zionist and progressive causes in Israel and the US. Bowman is married to Levin’s daughter Eve, an attorney, whom Bowman met while playing baseball at Princeton University.

For the WBC, players who are eligible for citizenship of a country are eligible to represent it in the tournament, regardless of their actual citizenship status.

In Israel’s case, that typically includes mostly American Jews — and occasionally those married to American Jews — who are eligible for Israeli citizenship under the country’s Law of Return. Chicago Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman, perhaps the biggest Jewish star in baseball, is instead playing for the US team.

Brad Ausmus, the New York Yankees bench coach (who held that same role for Israel last time), will manage Team Israel next month. He managed Israel in the 2013 WBC qualifiers, in which Israel narrowly missed out on the tournament. Longtime big leaguers Kevin Youkilis (bench coach), Mark Loretta (third base coach) and Jason Marquis (bullpen coach) will join Ausmus’s staff.

Some previous Team Israel players have forgone affiliation this year — most notably Texas Rangers designated hitter Joc Pederson.

Simon Rosenbaum, who previously played for Team Israel and now serves as its general manager, said building the team is “always a rollercoaster ride.”

“We’re excited about the team we’ve been able to put together, especially because of how much more interest we’ve gotten from players talking to each other about their past experience playing with us,” said Rosenbaum, who also serves as the director of baseball development for the Tampa Bay Rays. “We look forward to competing in a challenging pool and hope that we’re a team our fans can be proud of.”

Here is the full roster (asterisk denotes returning Team Israel member):

Pitchers: Charlie Beilenson, Josh Blum, Matt Bowman, Harrison Cohen, Daniel Federman*, Jordan Geber, Tommy Kahnle, Rob Kaminsky*, Dean Kremer*, Max Lazar, Carlos Lequerica, Josh Mallitz, Eli Morgan, Ryan Prager, Ben Simon, Robert Stock*, Zack Weiss*

Infielders: Cole Carigg, Jake Gelof, Spencer Horwitz*, Assaf Lowengart*, Noah Mendlinger*, Matt Mervis*, Benjamin Rosengard, C.J. Stubbs*, Garrett Stubbs*

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Outfielders: Harrison Bader, Troy Johnston, Zach Levenson, RJ Schreck

Israel is competing in Pool D in Miami. After exhibition games against the Miami Marlins and the New York Mets, here is the team’s schedule for the first round (all times ET):

• March 7 (7 p.m.): Israel vs. Venezuela
• March 8 (7 p.m.): Nicaragua vs. Israel
• March 9 (12 p.m.): Dominican Republic vs. Israel
• March 10 (7 p.m.): Israel vs. Netherlands