ORLANDO, Fla. — The World Baseball Classic will again interrupt spring training.

And the tournament will again hit the Padres hard.

Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. are virtually certain to play for the Dominican Republic. Xander Bogaerts is expected to be a part of the Netherlands’ team. Nick Pivetta is weighing whether to pitch for Canada.

In 2023, the Padres had nine players miss significant time in major league camp to participate in the WBC. That was tied for fourth most in the major leagues.

The WBC is not among the primary reasons the Padres have ever stated for their most anticipated and most expensive team failing to make the postseason that year. But all those absences have been mentioned as having impeded chemistry to some extent.

“We’ve already talked about it,” Padres

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