Padres News: Injury Will Keep Juan Soto From Joining His WBC Team Immediately

The superstar outfielder will remain with the Padres for a few extra days as teammates fly out to join Team DR for the WBC.

The World Baseball Classic is set to kick off this week and players will be exiting their spring training camps en masse after today. For the Padres, who have 9 players participating in the classic, it's certainly a big blow to the squad during Cactus League play. However, we've now learned that Juan Soto will be staying back with the club for a few more days.

San Diego Union-Tribune scribe Kevin Acee was among those to tweet the news that Soto will stay in Peoria for at least a couple days while he deals with a nagging calf injury.

Manager Bob Melvin addressed the news this morning, saying that the expectation is that Soto will stay in camp and receive treatment and continue to take at-bats. The hope is that he stays through Thursday before joining Team Dominican Republic on Friday. Soto still fully expects to play in the tournament.

Who Else is Leaving Padres Camp for the WBC?

15 players from the Padre organization will be playing in the WBC, including 9 from the 40-man roster.

Juan Soto will eventually join Manny Machado, Nelson Cruz, and pitcher Luis Garcia on Team DR.

Yu Darvish has already joined Team Japan in Tokyo. New shortstop Xander Bogaerts is playing for Team Netherlands. Ha-Seong Kim is playing for Team Korea. Pitchers Nabil Crismatt and Julio Teheran are joining Team Columbia. And catching prospect Brett Sullivan will play with Team Italy.

The WBC tournament begins in earnest on Tuesday with Team Netherlands facing Team Cuba. Team DR plays its first contest on Saturday against Venezuela. That game will be on FS1 at 4 PM PT.