stanfromwestport

Here is how WBC insurance works, at least the best I understand it. It all boils down to “guaranteed salaries”: To play in the World Baseball Classic, a player on a Major League 40-man roster must be covered by insurance to guarantee their salary. The insurer for the WBC is NFP (Team Scotti), who MLB and the MLBPA have agreed on. Players undergo entrance and exit physicals to help distinguish injuries incurred during the WBC from preexisting ones. Per a source cited by @francysromero, players are categorized by three different health designation. Chronic Condition: repeated injuries over years, multiple 60-day IL stints Intermediate Condition: multiple 10-day IL stints over 2–3 seasons Low-Risk Condition: little to no injury history It is unknown what exactly renders a player insurable/uninsurable. If a player receives insurance, their salary is guaranteed. If a player does not receive insurance, their salary is not guaranteed. If an insured player misses any amount of time due to an injury sustained during the WBC, the insurer will cover the salary for however many games are missed. If an UNINSURED player misses any amount of time due to an injury sustained during the WBC, MLB teams are not required to pay the player for the games they miss. MLB teams can choose to waive the insurance requirement and guarantee the salary of an uninsured player. If a player is deemed uninsurable, and the MLB team will not guarantee their salary, it comes down to the player’s personal choice: 1. Play in the WBC uninsured and risk his salary 2. Play in the WBC and purchase insurance out of his own pocket 3. Skip the WBC Of course, there is nuance in every step of this process. It would be great to have more visibility into what makes a player insurable or not. I’m not sure how you make that information public while keeping players’ medical information private. But just a little more transparency from all parties involved would do the WBC a world of good.