2026 World Baseball Classic

The 2026 World Baseball Classic was an international professional baseball tournament between 20 national baseball teams, and the sixth iteration of the World Baseball Classic (WBC). It ran from March 5 to 17, 2026. The pool-play rounds were played in LoanDepot Park in Miami, Florida; Daikin Park in Houston, Texas; Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. Two quarterfinals were played in Houston, while the remaining knockout stage games were played in Miami.

Japan was the defending champion, defeating the United States in the 2023 WBC championship game, but was eliminated by the eventual champion Venezuela in the quarterfinals. Japan's failure to reach the semifinals was its worst-ever finish in tournament history. The Dominican Republic and Italy, the tournament's last undefeated teams, were eliminated by the United States and Venezuela, respectively, in the semifinals, meaning that for the first time since 2017, no team finished the WBC with an undefeated record. The Dominican Republic and Venezuela, the top two teams from the Americas (alongside Olympic hosts United States), qualified for the 2028 Olympic baseball tournament, to be held in Los Angeles.

Venezuela won the World Baseball Classic for the first time, taking a 3–2 lead in the championship game with a run batted in double by Eugenio Suárez in the top of the ninth inning. Maikel García was named the most valuable player of the tournament.

16 teams qualified for the 2026 WBC tournament by virtue of having placed in the top four of their respective pools in the 2023 World Baseball Classic tournament.

Four additional teams qualified through the 2026 WBC qualifying tournament. The qualifying tournament included 8 teams, downsized from the 12 teams that had competed in the 2023 WBC qualifiers. The first pool took place in Taipei, and included Chinese Taipei, Spain, Nicaragua, and South Africa; the second pool took place in Tucson, Arizona, and included Colombia, China, Brazil, and Germany. The Taipei pool ran from February 21–25, 2025, and the Tucson pool ran from March 2–6, 2025.

Colombia, Nicaragua, Brazil, and Chinese Taipei all qualified for the 2026 WBC. Brazil qualified for the first time since 2013. China failed to qualify for the first time in the World Baseball Classic, as it was eliminated after it lost all three of its games in the qualifiers.

1 Ranking as of December 31, 2025

The pools and schedule were announced on August 21, 2024. Each pool contained an unspecified winner of a qualifier. The pool assignments of the teams that advanced from the qualifiers (pot 5) were announced on April 9, 2025. The pool assignments prioritized the hosts (Japan, Puerto Rico, and the United States). The remaining pool assignments were made based on WBSC World Rankings, competitive balance, and commercial and geographic interest.

Note: Numbers in parentheses indicate positions in the WBSC World Rankings at the time of the announcement of the pools.

Note: Numbers in parentheses indicate positions in the WBSC World Rankings at the time of the announcement of the pools. The decimal number represents the average ranking in the designated pool.

The main tournament was held in four stadiums.

To prepare for the tournament, teams played friendly preparation games between November 2025 and March 2026.

In each of the four pools, the top two teams qualified for the knockout stage. The teams finishing third and fourth achieved automatic qualification to the next WBC, while the team finishing last would be required to enter the qualifying phase for the next WBC.

The games were played at the dates and locations shown below.

The top two teams from each pool advanced to the single-elimination bracket. Houston hosted two quarterfinal games while Miami hosted the rest of the knockout stage.

The final standings were calculated by the WBSC for inclusion in the WBSC Men's Baseball World Rankings system.

On February 9, 2026, the WBSC announced that the tournament would serve as the only Olympic qualifier for teams from the Americas. The top two teams would join the hosting United States at the 2028 Olympic baseball tournament. The three remaining qualification spots, for participants from other regions, would be determined at qualification events taking place between November 2027 and March 2028.

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Sport24 secured the rights for international in-flight and cruise ship travel.

In Japan, Netflix acquired the exclusive rights to the tournament for an estimated 15 billion yen. Previously, the World Baseball Classic had been split between free-to-air (FTA) television and the pay television channel J Sports, with Japan's games usually being the only ones broadcast by FTA channels. Netflix subcontracted production of the broadcasts to Nippon Television.

The Netflix agreement faced a mixed reaction among fans and critics, as it marked the first time that Japan's WBC games would not be available on FTA television. Bars raised concerns that they would not be able to stream the tournament at their establishments due to Netflix's terms of service prohibiting commercial use, with some venues electing to do so discreetly in order to evade detection and legal complaints. As another workaround, some karaoke parlors enabled the ability for patrons to sign into the Netflix app in their private booths, so that they could watch the tournament with their friends. Netflix announced that it would offer a one-month subscription for 500 yen (approximately US$3.19) during March as a promotional offer for the tournament, and also organized public viewing parties in collaboration with venues such as Aeon and pub chain The HUB.

Some critics argued that negative reception to the deal was a form of Galápagos syndrome, noting that streaming was more prevalent among younger audiences than traditional television, the fact that non-Japan games would be available on a cheaper, over-the-top platform, and that Netflix was a well-known outlet internationally. Others believed that the lack of WBC coverage on television would reduce fatigue from the excessive media coverage of Shohei Ohtani by Japanese terrestrial networks.

According to the Japanese newspaper Nikkei, the number of Netflix mobile app downloads grew about five times higher than in March of the prior year.

Free coverage was also available via radio, with Nippon Broadcasting System holding rights to all Japan's games, and Nippon Cultural Broadcasting broadcasting one quarterfinal, one semifinal, and the final, regardless of whether Japan played or not, streaming service Radiko showing both radio stations audios. As part of its subcontract to produce the telecasts, Nippon Television also received the rights to produce a series of specials following the tournament.

The success of the 2017 and 2023 tournaments resulted in more MLB players interested in playing for their national teams. For the 2026 tournament, the United States had significantly better players, especially pitchers, than previous editions. Some have compared the 2026 United States team to the Avengers or the 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team, known as the "Dream Team".

But from February, support for the American team started to sour, first, it was announced that American pitcher Tarik Skubal had decided to pitch only a single game before returning to spring training with the Detroit Tigers. A few hours later, that game was announced as a group pool stage game against Great Britain. The decision was met with controversy, with fans calling Skubal a "quitter" and wondering if it would be a better option to pick another pitcher in his place.

Skubal blamed the calendar, saying, "If this tournament were in the middle of season, like if it was [Olympic] hockey, I'd had no problem playing those games".

Later in the tournament, fan scrutiny increased in part due to a statement by Bryce Harper comparing the tournament with the Olympics. This sparked discussion about American players' commitment to a team, which had also been questioned in prior WBC editions.

The peak of debate went after the loss over Italy during group pool play. Prior to the U.S.–Italy game, U.S. manager Mark DeRosa erroneously mentioned in an interview with MLB Network that Team USA had qualified for the quarterfinals, though no spot had been clinched at the time. DeRosa also allowed players to celebrate the early qualification, contributing to a loss against Italy that left the U.S. team's fate in jeopardy.

The U.S. ended up qualifying for the quarterfinals after Mexico lost to the same Italian team. Following this, a win against Canada and a controversial win over the Dominican Republic guaranteed a spot in the championship game.

After the loss in the final to Venezuela, fans called to DeRosa step down from the national team, even if he wanted to manage Team USA for the next WBC.

If players are on Major League Baseball 40-man rosters, they must have an insurance policy that compensates teams (in case a player is injured during the tournament) or else have a written waiver allowing the player to play. The reasons to refuse a player are various, but often related to age, extensive injury history or recent injuries. Most of WBC and MLB-related insurances are issued by National Financial Partners, an Aon company.

This rule has long been a point of contention for fans, teams, and organizers, because it often affects the performance of teams and makes teams heavily dependent on knowing the eligibility of a player beforehand. For example, in 2023, Clayton Kershaw was not allowed to play for Team USA due to an insurance refusal, but was allowed to play in 2026 because he is now technically classified as a free agent due to his retirement following the 2025 MLB season.

The rule reached another boiling point in 2026 due to widespread insurance refusal among players, such as Jose Altuve and Miguel Rojas of Venezuela.

The most notable case in 2026 was with Team Puerto Rico, which suffered from the refusal of several potential players, the most notable being Francisco Lindor and Carlos Correa. The impact on the team prompted fans to boycott the tournament, and the federation, alongside the local government, considered withdrawing from the tournament completely due to the insurance issues with the players. The situation quickly escalated to WBC and MLB leaderships, resulting in an emergency meeting with Puerto Rico on the afternoon of January 31. After the meeting, it was reported that World Baseball Classic Inc. (WBCI), MLB, and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) were negotiating with insurers to change some decisions. On February 1, another meeting was held between MLB and Puerto Rican federation. Reports indicated that the Puerto Rican federation and local businesspeople were working to secure backup insurance in case the original insurance re-refused the players, but the three players asked by Puerto Rico were unable to be selected due to the insurance rules.

The president of WBSC Americas and Venezuelan Baseball Federation, Aracelis León, also voiced her displeasure at the insurance issues on February 1, asking WBCI and MLBPA to fix the situation. Lindor was ruled out for the Classic on February 11, due to having surgery on his hand for a hamate bone injury.

The Baseball Federation of Cuba announced on February 25, 2026, that American officials had denied visas to eight members of its traveling party, including the organization's president and general secretary due to the ongoing 2026 Cuban crisis. The visa denials were tied to the tightening of immigration policies, which currently require specialized licensing for Cuban team officials to enter the U.S. All Cuban players and coaches were cleared to enter the country due to visa exemptions for athletes and coaches participating in big sporting tournaments, Olympic qualifiers, and events supported by Major League Baseball.

As was the case in recent WBCs, the 2026 tournament uses the regular season MLB rules of the prior year's season. This meant that the Automated Ball-Strike System (ABS) challenge rules would not be in play for the 2026 WBC.

Following the opening game of the tournament between Chinese Taipei and Australia, umpire Omar Peralta was heavily criticized by Taiwanese fans and media for missing key calls, leading Taiwanese media to describe his strike-zone as an "amoeba". Chinese Taipei ended up losing 0–3 against Australia, in one of the most critical games of Pool C, which caused the controversy to deepen and raised calls for an early adoption of ABS.

On March 4, 2026, Ronald Acuña Jr. mistakenly tried to use the ABS challenge system, in Venezuela's pre-tournament exhibition game against the Houston Astros.

On March 15, 2026, the Dominican Republic lost to the United States in the semifinal on a controversial strike during a full count where had it been reviewed and called correctly, would have allowed Geraldo Perdomo to walk as it was a ball. This led to further calls to implement ABS during the tournament.

In March 2026, Taiwanese Premier Cho Jung-tai made a personal trip to Tokyo to watch the 2026 World Baseball Classic, marking the first time the Taiwanese Premier visited Japan since diplomatic relations were severed in 1972. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Guo Jiakun criticized the visit as having "evil designs" and warned "Japan's indulgence in provocation ... will inevitably come at a cost". The Japanese government defended the trip as a personal affair, while Cho said he paid for the trip himself. Cho claimed that his out-of-pocket expenses included purchasing WBC tickets from Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). Since tickets for Taiwan's matches had sold out early, this further triggered controversy regarding the CPBL's potential involvement in the illegal resale of tickets.

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