Everything you should know as the World Baseball Classic makes its return

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The best-on-best international tournament hasn't been staged in six years because of the pandemic. It returns Tuesday with Cuba and the Netherlands squaring off from Taichung, Taiwan, at 11 p.m. ET. First pitch for Canada, which is playing out of Phoenix, Ariz., is on Sunday against Great Britain.

Here's everything else you need to know:

Player participation is closer to soccer's World Cup than Olympic men's hockey. The timing of the tournament right before the start of the MLB season means some players won't want to risk injury, and the tournament, which only began in 2006, still lacks some prestige. But for the most part, the WBC remains a pretty decent representation of each country's standing on the baseball world stage. For example, Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr., wanted to participate and was on the Dominican roster until a minor knee injury in spring training led him to back out over the weekend in favour of preparing for the regular season. Shame for Dominican fans, relief for Jays fans. There's still plenty of starpower divided across four pools of 20 teams, including former MVPs Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and young Atlanta slugger Ronald Acuna Jr.

Canada also has a former MVP. That would be Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, a legit superstar who won the award while playing for Atlanta in 2020. Freeman was born in California, grew up there and played college baseball there, too. But both of his parents were born in Ontario, and Freeman, who also represented Canada at the 2017 WBC, says he chooses the Maple Leaf as a way to honour his