Jose Cano, father of American League All-Star Robinson Cano, pitches in the first round during the State Farm Home Run Derby at Kauffman Stadium on July 9, 2012 in Kansas City, Missouri. The elder Cano will manage the Dominican Republic at the 2023 Pan American Games. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
The Federacion Dominicana de Beisbol announced on Monday their official roster for the 2023 Pan American Games in Chile.
Jose Cano will be the manager for the Dominican Republic during the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, and the Dominican Republic will bring a different coaching staff from the one that led the squad at 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games.
All players from the Dominican Republic will be players recently released at the lower levels of the minor leagues with Major League Baseball organizations and are now professional free agents, drafted players eligible to play in the Liga de Béisbol Profesional de la República Dominicana, and players from the Liga Dominicana de Verano, which concluded its second full season of operation and is run by the Federación Dominicana de Béisbol.
Kelvin Pena, Irving Ortega, Ricardo Céspedes, Wildert Pujols, Eric González, Adrián Valerio, César Rosado, and José Molina are all the players returning from the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games roster that will suit up for the Dominican Republic in the 2023 Pan American Games.
The Dominican Republic is ranked No. 9 in the world, has won one gold medal at the 1955 Pan American Games, and won silver at the 1979 Pan American Games, the last time that the nation medaled at the tournament.
The Dominican Republic has also won gold at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games, the 1982 Central American and Caribbean Games, and the 1962 Central American and Caribbean Games.
The Dominican Republic won gold at the first edition of the 2019 Caribbean Cup, which is the last time the nation has won gold at an international senior event.
The Dominican Republic has won gold only twice in international senior events the last 10 years, most notably the 2013 World Baseball Classic, where they beat Puerto Rico in the championship game at AT&T Park in San Francisco.
The last time the Dominican Republic medaled at an international senior event was during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, beating South Korea in the bronze medal game 10-6 at Yokohama Stadium.
The Pan American Games will have a total of eight nations in the baseball event, including No. 3 Mexico, No. 6 Venezuela, No. 8 Cuba, No. 15 Colombia, No. 23 Brazil, and host nation Chile, which is not ranked in the World Baseball Rankings.