Padres’ spring training will lack some star power — for a stretch

Jake Cronenworth is going to be the only one left.

“I’ll be there by myself just having fun,” he said recently.

Cronenworth, the Padres’ presumptive first baseman, is the lone Padres starting infielder who will not depart spring training in early March to play in the World Baseball Classic.

Second baseman Ha-Seong Kim is playing for South Korea, third baseman Manny Machado for the Dominican Republic and shortstop Xander Bogaerts for the Netherlands.

“Obviously, Juan (Soto) and Manny are on a pretty good team that I’m sure is gonna have a shot at going all the way,” Cronenworth said. “So I won’t see them for a while.”

Padres players have been arriving in Arizona over the past 10 days, with Monday the first of four official report days this spring training. Pitchers and catchers who are participating in the WBC arrived.

The rest of the pitchers and catchers must be in camp by Wednesday, with position players participating in the WBC reporting Thursday and the entirety of the squad having to be in camp by Feb. 20. The first full-squad workout is the following day, and spring games begin Feb. 24.

Starting pitcher Yu Darvish departed Sunday for Japan to train with that country’s WBC club. Some other participants will leave the first week of March. Reliever Nabil Crismatt, whose Colombia team will train and play its pool games in Arizona, will spend most of his time in Padres camp.

“Still kind of getting a handle on that,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said Monday of the plan regarding how they will make sure players are ready. “When the report dates, when we talk to these guys … It’s getting a schedule where we get a piece and they’re able to train with their team and how they want to go about it as well.”

The Dominican Republic and United States are favored to reach the WBC final on March 21. Japan is also considered a strong candidate to make it at least to a semifinal game on March 20. Machado, Soto, designated hitter Nelson Cruz and reliever Luis Garcia are playing for the Dominican Republic.

“That’s definitely going to be hard being away from the team,” Machado said. “We have a lot of players going to the WBC, which is kind of a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. It’s going to be tough. But ultimately, I think all of us are representing our countries. That is big for us. We take pride in that. Anytime you get to represent your country in the biggest way you possibly can in the biggest platform, I think it’s great for the game of baseball. I think it’s great for the countries that you’re representing.

“So it’s going to be a special event, but then it does kind of hurt your team a little bit because a lot of us are going to be gone. … We’re all going to be competing, playing paying high-level baseball, which is going to help us ultimately prepare for a World Series title.”

The Padres’ final spring training game is March 27. Opening Day is March 30.

That likely leaves those that advance far in the tournament playing in five to seven games at the start of the Cactus League schedule and at least three games at the end of spring.

“We’ve been playing baseball for a long time and we’ve been in the league for a long time,” Bogaerts said. “So we kind of know what to do. It’s just working with each other that is going to be the thing.”

Catcher Brett Sullivan, who is playing for Italy, is the other player on the Padres 40-man roster competing in the WBC.

With the stars gone, players like Jose Azocar, David Dahl and Brandon Dixon will receive more opportunities in Cactus League games. Darvish being gone leaves more innings for the Padres to assess the half-dozen pitchers trying to show they can be starting options. It also allows Fernando Tatis Jr. to more freely move around as he works back into baseball shape after missing last season due to injury and suspension.

The Cardinals (13), Astros (12) and Mets (10) are the only teams with more players on their 40-man roster participating in the WBC than the Padres’ nine. The Padres have four starting position players participating in the tournament plus Cruz, who is expected to platoon at designated hitter. Five other teams have four starting position players in the WBC, The Cardinals and Rays have five.

Melvin has been manager of a major league team every year there has been a WBC (2006, ’09, ’13 and ’17). He said that for whatever time missed or other differences that occur in spring because of the tournament, the effect on play once the season begins is negligible.

“It doesn’t really feel like it,” he said. “I know that guys have to get ready quicker and know that right away when you start to play games that these at-bats really mean something, whereas in spring training it’s a process to try to get ready for the season. There’s intensity earlier on in (WBC) games. Now, this is the first time personally I’ve had this many guys that that are playing in it. So it may have a different feel to it.”