Players only manage so many professional PA per year. If these are exhibition games, they're an insult to the teams, who need to practice together to get ready for Opening Day. If these are not exhibition games, they will further dilute the talent pool in the big league games. It's obvious in the case of starting pitchers, who will have their seasons extended without having their professional expectations (say, 180 or 200 IP) reduced. But the same thing will happen to position players. The WBC games will put what, about 50 PA on some the game's best position players, who will then be asked to play 750 PA, which usually is not going to happen.
The teams most hurt will be the teams with the most to lose--the teams whose success or failure depends most on a smaller group of players. Every game Jason Bay plays for Canada is more or less one game less that he'll play for the Pirates. I'd believe otherwise if the AB distribution from year-to-year suggested that many guys are capable of staying healthy and competent for 700-PA years.
The season is already too long, and this makes it longer. What they could do, something I would support, is shorten the regular season. They could bring it back to about 144 games, add the WBC, open later and start the expanded playoffs sooner.
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