Nelson Cruz became the first player/GM to hit a home run during the Dominican Republic's exhibition game against the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday, per Hector Gomez. Although the stats don't count from the contest, Cruz's homer was still impressive to say the least.

Cruz signed with the San Diego Padres in free agency. He clearly still has plenty of thump left in his bat and will provide pop for San Diego. However, his first order of business is to lead the Dominican Republic to a deep World Baseball Classic run.

Nelson Cruz recently discussed his GM role, per Phil Miller of the Star Tribune.

“There's a lot of things behind the scenes that us, the players, don't find out, that fans don't find out, media don't find out,” Cruz said. “Living day by day with situations and seeing behind the scenes what's going on. [Managing] operations and calling GMs and calling players, it's definitely been a nice experience. … I wouldn't change anything if I could do it all over.”

The Dominican Republic are the betting favorites heading into the WBC. They are led by superstars such as Manny Machado and Rafael Devers. However, teams such as the USA and Japan also have high odds of winning it all.

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Nelson Cruz and the Dominican Republic team will officially begin their journey to a World Baseball Classic championship on Saturday against Venezuela.