Peter Schmuck: WBC could raise Henderson back to top gun

Don’t need to remind any of you that at this time last year, Gunnar Henderson was rehabbing an intercostal strain and hoping he would be able to take the field on Opening Day.

He didn’t.

He missed the first seven games and then struggled through April, hitting just three homers, driving in just five runs and struggling to bat above .200 until embarking on a nine-game hitting streak at the end of the month. And he revealed recently that he was dealing with a shoulder impingement for much of the summer.

So we now know why he hit about half as many home runs as he did the year before and why most fantasy baseball experts still think he’s one of the Top 10 offensive players in the game.

Which brings us to the World Baseball Classic, in which Henderson looked like classic Gunnar during the pool round that was completed on Wednesday. He started two games and had five hits in 10 at-bats, including a home run.

The WBC resumes today and Team USA will play Canada at 8 p.m. (EDT) in the quarterfinal round. Don’t know if Gunnar will be in the starting lineup, since he has been sharing time at shortstop and third with Bobby Witt Jr. and Alex Bregman, but he’s living out his dream of playing with “USA” on the front of his jersey and seems to be building momentum for the regular season.

Pretty sure new manager Craig Albernaz and the rest of the big league skippers who have players on the team secretly have mixed feelings about the WBC. I certainly would.

Having star-quality players come out of their regular spring routines to ramp up early for a very intense international baseball tournament is an iffy proposition. Though probably more so for starting pitchers, you’ve got to believe that having your big stars playing outside of your managerial comfort zone can lead to some sleepless spring nights.

Of course, players get injured in exhibition games all the time, but it’s fair to assume that the likelihood of injury while going at max effort for nine innings in early March is higher than it would be playing four or five innings every other day in spring camp.

So, it’s probably a good thing that Henderson has not played every game of the pool round, but the games this weekend are going to be even more intense.

Here’s hoping that Team USA has to play all weekend, Henderson gets to live out his patriotic dream to the fullest and carries a ton of momentum through the final week of spring training.

I’ll confess that I haven’t been all that focused on the WBC in past years, but this one has been action-packed and included the added drama of the USA team having to sweat out the possibility of a three-team tie breaker until Vinnie Pasquantino pushed Team Italy and Team USA into the quarterfinals with his unprecedented “You’re welcome, USA” three-homer performance against Mexico on Wednesday night.