Segura’s World Baseball Classic participation a balancing act of pride, preparation

Jean Segura lives for moments like he had Tuesday.

The infielder sent his now-home ballpark, with an announced crowd of 33,307, into a frenzy when his seventh-inning line-drive hopped over the wall in right-center field for a two-run, ground-rule double and secured the Dominican Republic’s 10-0 mercy-rule win over Israel in a World Baseball Classic pool play game at loanDepot park.

“Extremely grateful,” said Segura, who signed a two-year deal with the Marlins in January and had a similar hit at the 2017 World Baseball Classic in extra innings against Colombia. “It was a great game, great match. No anxiety. The excitement to play and to participate in the World Classic is very important. Every player should have the chance or the opportunity to play.”

The one problem: Segura wished he had more opportunities to have moments like that.

The Miami Marlins wished, big moments or not, Segura was simply going to have a chance to get on the field more often.

The ground-rule double was one of just two at-bats that Segura took during the Dominican Republic’s four World Baseball Classic games. The other was a pinch-hit swinging strikeout in the ninth inning of their 5-2 elimination loss to Puerto Rico on Wednesday.

This comes at a time when Segura is playing for a new team that has a new manager while playing a relatively new position in third base, where he has made just 21 starts through his 11 MLB seasons.

Participating in the World Baseball Classic presented Segura with what he called a “complicated situation.”

Representing his country means a lot to him. It’s a point of pride to Segura and just about every other Dominican player who has the chance to do so.

But with no guarantee that he was going to play regularly, or at all, it also took away valuable time that he could have spent getting ready for the season, which begins March 30.

“It’s challenging because Segura’s not playing,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said this week. “You would like Segura to play. I’m sure he would like to play as well, but that team’s stacked. It’s got to be challenging on that manager over there trying to find innings for all those guys. I mean, there’s just All-Stars everywhere you look. That part is challenging, but he wants to be part of it. He’s a good player. We’d like him to be here to build the chemistry and camaraderie with the group but we’re FaceTiming him and he’s in a good spot right now. But having to play a new position and not getting any reps over there, sure, we think about that and not getting at-bats. That part of it is — I wouldn’t say a concern, but we want him to play and I’m sure he wants to play.”

With the Dominican Republic viewed as a heavy favorite, though, there was no room to just play players for the sake of playing players.

And with the roster the country put together, even a two-time All-Star and MLB regular such as Segura was buried on the depth chart.

Just look at the rest of the infield Dominican Republic manager Rodney Linares had to work with during the tournament.

Manny Machado, a six-time All-Star, two-time Gold Glover and one-time Silver Slugger, started every game at third base. That pushed Rafael Devers, a two-time All-Star and one-time Silver Slugger, exclusively to designated hitter duties.

Jeremy Pena, the 2022 World Series MVP and 2022 Gold Glover as a rookie last season, started two of four games at shortstop. Fellow rising phenom Willy Adames and Wander Franco started the other two game at shortstop, with Franco and one-time All-Star Ketel Marte splitting the four starts at second base.

Jeimer Candelario started all four games at first base.

That left Segura and Robinson Cano on the bench for all of pool play.

“I just want to put out the best possible team,” Linares said Tuesday. “I’m not minimizing the players. I have said that from the very beginning. They are all superstars. I’m dealing with a group of 30 players that are the best in the Majors, and I can only put nine out there. ... It’s a very short tournament. It could be four games or seven games, and that’s why we have to maximize and to win the most games.”

For the Dominican Republic, the tournament turned out to just be four games. They went 2-2 in pool play, losing to the two teams from their group that advanced to the quarterfinals in Venezuela and Puerto Rico.

Segura went into the World Baseball Classic understanding his role would likely be as a reserve. He said last month that he was “probably going to play with a lot of guys who are going to retire and might be in the Hall of Fame” and that he was going to still spend as much time as he could preparing for playing third base long-term.

“That’s where I’m going to play during the regular season here,” Segura said.

“But,” he added, “if Team Dominican needs me at second or the outfield, first base, third base, whatever position, pinch-runner, I’m going to be there.”

It turns out they only needed him for two at-bats over four games.

Now, Segura — along with Marlins starting pitchers Sandy Alcantara and Johnny Cueto — will return to Marlins camp in Jupiter for the final two weeks of spring training.

It’s back to preparing for the season.

“Not getting those five at-bats a night,” Schumaker said, “he’ll get those when he gets back here.”