If there was ever any doubt that the Future Stars Series is truly the global initiative for both New Balance Baseball and Program 15 Sports, look no further than the past few days.
On the heels of CEO and president Jeremy Booth’s announcement that the World Combine was set to return for the first time since 2020, official word finally came down this week on the much-anticipated second annual Caribbean Classic.
The return of the @NB_Baseball @P15Sports @ftrstarsseries World Combine happens in March of 2024. The first version was halted by Covid two days before it was set to kick off. 150 players at that time from 10 countries. 200 plus scouts were slated to attend. This time around,… pic.twitter.com/IZZ02jd9tA
— Jeremy Booth (@_JeremyBooth) September 10, 2023
As you may recall, last year’s event at Complejo Deportivo Naranjo Baseball Field in El Naranjo featured four teams, featuring three made up of international players, and a fourth comprised of American-born prospects. The latter group featured future MLB draft picks like Boston Baro and Cooper Pratt as well as highly touted Cleveland-signee Javier Torres, and also included numerous players who are expected to make big impacts as they start their collegiate careers next season.
It was the “Goon Squad” white team that ended up taking home the first-ever championship belt during what was an incredibly well-received event, one that had a constant, large presence behind home plate at all times from both big-league scouts and executives.
This year? Bigger. Better.
Set for October 12-15 for a return to the Naranjo Baseball Fields, the event has been expanded to six teams, including two domestic clubs comprised of mostly 2024-2025 grad class standouts the upcoming Main Event and from previous FSS events, as well as highly-touted 2026 prospect R.J. Cope.
There will be a National team and an American team that will compete against four international clubs; a Puerto Rico team, a Dominican Republic team, a Dominican mix team and a final team comprised of top talent from Cuba, Venezuela and the Bahamas, which was the site of the last World Combine.
As it is an international event, those rosters will be finalized at a later date, but rosters for the two domestic clubs are now available and are posted below:
Team 1: Gavin Barr, Nolan Belcher, Dominic Bonilla, Zack Bretza, RJ Cope, Manuel Dorantes, T.J. Ford, Austin Gray, Benton Hickman, Markus Kirksey, Alexander Melo, Mason Middleton, Michael Nicolini, Aiden Poe, Andrew Prybylla, Preston Schwarz, Josian Soto, Dale Sutton, Fernando Tillery Jr., Karson Trichel
Team 2: Ethan Barnes, Britt Berrier, Julian Carter, Jack Casteel, Nathaniel Chambers, Landon Cochran, Robert Demetree, Benjamin Dominguez, Loic Guillemette, Jaden Gummersbach, Noah Hanohano, Aaron Jacobsen, Noah LaFine, Derrick Layton, Chase Lewis, Wyatt Lidke, Maddox Perez, Isaiah Reveron, Caleb Trugman, Murchael Turner
“It’s truly global,” Booth said. “COVID shut down a lot of where we were headed from an international standpoint back in 2020 — and even then we found a way to go to the Bahamas for a great event with the World Combine when most companies weren’t able to do anything at all — but now you’re really going to start to see where this is going. We’re really excited to get back to the Dominican and run it back, but really, we had no choice. Once people saw how this went last year, we were getting requests from every direction to expand it, and we truly believe it’ll be both bigger and better this time around. This is just the tip of the iceberg from an international standpoint. We got now. Everywhere.”
