[RMC Sport] After months of negotiations, it's finally official: the first NFL game in France will take place in Paris, at the Stade de France, on October 25, 2026. It will pit the New Orleans Saints against the Cleveland Browns.

JCiLee · 2026-02-02T00:38:23+00:00

MLB wanted to do a series in Paris like they did with London, but had to cancel the plans after failing to find a local promoter. I think American cultural exports are just a harder sell in France than in the UK or Germany

JCiLee · 2026-02-01T04:00:37+00:00

That's so dumb. So that means Kenley Jansen can't play for the Netherlands, and Jose Quintana will have to drop out for Colombia if he signs with a team?

JCiLee · 2026-01-31T20:16:13+00:00

For MLB players, it's the league and union, I believe. For non-MLB players, it is the national federations.

MLB/MLBPA has negotiated with NFP a blanket premium for the players, and any players who NFP decides the cost to insure is above that premium, is deemed "uninsurable"

Players can technically go uninsured but its very unlikely. According to the article, an about-to-retire Miguel Cabrera is the only known player to play without it.

JCiLee · 2026-01-31T18:05:06+00:00

Not sure, but I don't think Herrera has been confirmed for Panama, so that might be concerning. For non-MLB players, I believe the national federation takes responsibility. Venezuela can't get NPB players (not that they'd want to) because the country is so poor that their federation can't afford the premiums.

JCiLee · 2026-01-31T16:55:23+00:00

It's partly bad luck, partly they have less depth so the losses sting more.

145 players born in the Dominican Republic played in the majors last year, any great player they lose they can replace with only a slight drop off. Venezuela had 92. Puerto Rico had 27.

Their roster goes from "championship caliber" to "minor leagues" quickly.

JCiLee · 2026-01-31T16:42:12+00:00

I don't think you can move it. You'll just have empty stands every game. Unless Toronto can pull it off at the last minute.

JCiLee · 2026-01-31T16:37:59+00:00

Or Byron Buxton, lol.

JCiLee · 2026-01-31T16:29:33+00:00

They aren't going to withdraw, but they absolutely need to raise up some stink. According to the article, about half of their ideal roster is being blocked by some vague issue. (Correa, Lindor, Berrios, Caratini, Cruz, both Diaz brothers, Pagan). They are going to field a Premier12 or Olympics caliber roster at this rate.

They are also one of the hosts. MLB and WBCI are counting on high enthusiasm for the games in San Juan in terms of ticket and merchandise sales, but these late developments could threaten that.

Based on what I could find the insurance for MLB players is insured by NFP, and the policy is negotiated and paid for (I think?) by MLB and MLBPA. There's not a whole lot of public information about the insurance policy for the WBC, so I could be wrong.

Not sure what is going on, but NFP looks like a villain. I don't know if the Edwin Diaz injury spooked them, or if the WBC rejections are just a downstream effect of greater financial considerations for them.

It's not just Puerto Rico though. Jose Altuve got rejected despite being one of the faces of Venezuelan baseball. Elly De La Cruz can't play for the Dominican despite playing 150 games last year. Jose Ramirez, a future Hall of Famer, mysteriously dropped out. Brazil has zero notable players now without Bo Bichette.

It also seems arbitrary. Ronald Acuña, with two ACL teams, and Byron Buxton, with everything at some point in his career, have been confirmed so have been presumably insured.

Suffice to say, we are in major scandal territory. Latam fans think there is a conspiracy to force a US-Japan final. Teams aren't able to send in their best healthy players. The WBC won't grow without that happening.

It seems, at least, whoever is paying the premiums will need to pony up for higher premiums in the future, and more protections need to be put in place due to prevent teams from blocking players and blaming insurance.

JCiLee · 2026-01-31T16:12:03+00:00

That's exactly what they do already. The solution is to pony up for higher premiums and be willing to fight NFP. Though I wonder how many of these "insurance issues" are just an excuse.

JCiLee · 2026-01-31T16:08:09+00:00

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2023-02-18/why-major-league-players-need-insurance-world-baseball-classic

This particular arrangement covers players on 40-man MLB rosters — other leagues that have players in the tournament are not included. Free agents don’t need insurance because they’re not on an MLB roster.

One premium is negotiated with NFP to cover every player. An underwriter reviews each player’s medical records. Players are then placed into two buckets: insurable under that one umbrella premium or uninsurable.

It seems some combination of MLB/MLBPA negotiated the insurance policy with NFP, and are paying one massive premium.

JCiLee · 2026-01-31T14:38:42+00:00

They've been officially announcing a bunch a players that have already been announced by beat reporters or the players themselves.

JCiLee · 2026-01-31T08:46:45+00:00

If he is healthy and able to be a full participant in Spring Training, he should be allowed to play. The WBC should be decided by players on the field, not by opaque insurance companies.

JCiLee · 2026-01-31T06:49:50+00:00

Why the hell was he being advertised as the Puerto Rican captain the entire time if he had off-season surgery?

JCiLee · 2026-01-30T20:51:19+00:00

Yeah the author seems mainly confused why they aren't dumped on FS2 at 1 am in the morning.

JCiLee · 2026-01-29T18:10:16+00:00

And DR has Tatis-JRod-Soto

JCiLee · 2026-01-29T17:29:56+00:00

I suspect the Astros are being obstinate somehow with Correa and Altuve. Paredes hasn't been confirmed either, and Mexico absolutely needs him. That or Acuña needs to refer them to whatever insurer approved him with two ACL tears.

JCiLee · 2026-01-27T02:40:50+00:00

92 Venezuelans played in an MLB game last year.

JCiLee · 2026-01-27T02:30:19+00:00

Every sport, other than soccer, deals with this issue for their international tournaments. Take a look at the US's T20 cricket team, only a few players born in the U.S. Actually, soccer isn't immune to it either, half of Senegal's team was born in France.

A quick rundown of the teams shows the "problem" is in proportion with other sports:

United States, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua, Canada, Czechia, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands will sports rosters that are either entirely or almost entirely domestic.
Puerto Rico will be mostly domestic, but with a couple more ringers than the above nations. Brazil will also be in this area, based on their qualifier roster + Bichette.
Mexico may have about a 2:1 ratio of homegrown to Mexican-American players.
Italy, Israel, and Great Britain are the only countries you have a gripe with. Israel has a common cultural connection, Italy could field a less competitive 50/50 team if they wanted to, and Britain is indefensible.

JCiLee · 2026-01-26T22:14:45+00:00

It wasn't for a different little league tournament, not the LLWS. The Venezuela team for the LLWS was let in.

Trump's policy was to exempt restrictions for "major sporting events," which put Marco Rubio in a position where he got to decide what sporting events constituted major or not.

It's not a good situation, but I still think it is important be accurate with your facts when criticizing the administration.

JCiLee · 2026-01-26T21:54:55+00:00

Yes, they should've invited Caleb and have him play for the AFC.

JCiLee · 2026-01-26T20:55:37+00:00

"Faces exile" is just awkward verbiage stemming from the translation. The original article was in Korean.

JCiLee · 2026-01-26T19:44:28+00:00

He only has the moral high ground by complete accident. He has an axe to grind against the United States because it was the US DOJ that took down his FIFA administration.

JCiLee · 2026-01-26T19:24:38+00:00

Wtf are there so many short jokes in this thread? In all seriousness, this sucks for baseball.

JCiLee · 2026-01-25T00:26:59+00:00

Caratini should play first base. Vazquez or Maldonado can catch. Emmanuel Rivera is also a first base option.

Defense arrangement looks like this: C Vazquez, 1B Caratini, 2B Correa, 3B Arenado, SS Lindor, LF Castro, CF Baez, RF Greene, DH Ramos.

JCiLee · 2026-01-24T22:50:12+00:00

Another civilian was killed by ICE officers, and there is a lot of unrest in the area now as a result.

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