2026 World Baseball Classic
The 2026 World Baseball Classic is an international professional baseball tournament between 20 national baseball teams, planned to be the sixth iteration of the World Baseball Classic, and to be played from March 5 to 17, 2026. Its pool-play rounds will be played in Miami, Florida; Houston, Texas; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Tokyo, Japan. The quarterfinals will be split between Miami and Houston, the semi-finals and the final will be played in Miami.
Japan is the defending champion, having defeated the United States in the 2023 WBC championship game.
Teams
Qualification
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.
| Region | Team | Qualification method | Previous best result | WBSC world ranking1 | |
| Americas | Qualifiers Pool B 2nd-place playoff winner | 1 | Pool stage | 22 | |
| Americas | 2023 World Baseball Classic Pool C 3rd place | 5 | Pool stage | 20 | |
| Americas | Qualifiers Pool B winner | 2 | Pool stage | 13 | |
| Americas | 2023 World Baseball Classic Pool A winner | 5 | Runners-up | 10 | |
| Americas | 2023 World Baseball Classic Pool D 3rd place | 5 | Champions | 12 | |
| Americas | 2023 World Baseball Classic Pool C winner | 5 | 3rd place | 6 | |
| Americas | Qualifiers Pool A winner | 1 | Pool stage | 16 | |
| Americas | 2023 World Baseball Classic Pool A 4th place | 3 | Pool stage | 8 | |
| Americas | 2023 World Baseball Classic Pool D Runners-up | 5 | Runners-up | 7 | |
| Americas | 2023 World Baseball Classic Pool C Runners-up | 5 | Champions | 3 | |
| Americas | 2023 World Baseball Classic Pool D winner | 5 | 4th place | 5 | |
| Asia | Qualifiers Pool A Second-place playoff winner | 5 | Quarterfinals | 2 | |
| Asia | 2023 World Baseball Classic Pool B winner | 5 | Champions | 1 | |
| Asia | 2023 World Baseball Classic Pool B 3rd place | 5 | Runners-up | 4 | |
| Europe | 2023 World Baseball Classic Pool B 4th place | 1 | Pool stage | 15 | |
| Europe | 2023 World Baseball Classic Pool C 4th place | 1 | Pool stage | 19 | |
| Europe | 2023 World Baseball Classic Pool D 4th place | 2 | Quarterfinals | 21 | |
| Europe | 2023 World Baseball Classic Pool A Runners-up | 5 | Quarterfinals | 14 | |
| Europe | 2023 World Baseball Classic Pool A 3rd place | 5 | 4th place | 9 | |
| Oceania | 2023 World Baseball Classic Pool B Runners-up | 5 | Quarterfinals | 11 |
1 Ranking as of December 31, 2025
Draw
The pools and schedule were announced on August 21, 2024. The teams that advanced from the qualifiers were added on April 9, 2025. The pool assignments prioritized the hosts. 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 draw.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 | Pot 5 |
| ' ' | | | | |
Note: Numbers in parentheses indicate positions in the WBSC World Rankings at the time of the draw. The decimal number represents the average ranking in the designated pool.
| Pot | Pool A | Pool B | Pool C | Pool D | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pot |  VenuesThe main tournament will be held in four stadiums.RostersPre-WBC friendly gamesTo prepare for the tournament, teams will play friendly preparation games between November 2025 and March 2026.South Korea played Czechia in two games on November 7–8 at a sold out Seoul Sky Dome, Korea won both. South Korea and Japan played two games later in November at the Tokyo Dome. Japan won the first game and both Korea and Japan tied the second game. No MLB players were called to play in those games, as those games were used to test potential non-MLB players that would be part of the final roster decision in December and early-February. After the final roster decisions, teams will participate in extra friendly games, Japan will play games in Miyazaki and at Nagoya Dome with Fukuoka Softbank Hawks and Chunichi Dragons respectively, meanwhile, Chinese Taipei will play against The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and SoftBank Hawks in a send-off series at Taipei Dome. Czechia will play three exhibition games against the farm squad of Chiba Lotte Marines in Miyakonojo. Nicaragua will host four exhibition games against Cuba in February. Korea will hold practice games in Okinawa, the team's base camp location. Australia will do its camp and play vs industrial baseball teams in Fuchu, Tokyo. In March, before the tournament, every team will play two last friendly games each, 14 of 15 teams of pools A, B and D against MLB teams at Spring Training sites in Florida and Arizona on March 3–4. The Dominican Republic, the lone team to not play in Arizona or Florida, will play the Detroit Tigers twice across the same two dates at Estadio Quisqueya in Santo Domingo. For pool C, Japan and Korea will play against the Orix Buffaloes and Hanshin Tigers main squads at the Osaka Dome. Australia, Chinese Taipei and Czechia will play against the NPB Farm squads of the Buffaloes, Yomiuri Giants and the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Miyazaki. 20252026Pool stageScheduled locations and dates are as follows:Pool APool BPool CPool DKnockout stageThe top two teams from each pool will advance to the single elimination bracket. Houston will host two quarterfinal games, between the top 2 teams in Pool A and top 2 teams in Pool B, while the other two quarterfinals, between the top 2 teams in Pool C and the top 2 teams in Pool D, and the rest of the tournament, will take place in Miami. If the United States makes the Knockout stage, their game will be played on March 13, regardless of whether they finished 1st or 2nd in Pool B. If Japan makes the Knockout stage, their game will be played on March 14, regardless of whether they finished 1st or 2nd in Pool C. The Quarterfinal winners will then be re-seeded for the Semifinals.BracketQuarterfinalsTBD: Depends on pool’s positioning.SemifinalsFinalBroadcasting
Controversies and storylinesNetflix exclusive deal in Japanreached an agreement with the World Baseball Classic Inc. for the exclusive broadcasting rights in the Japanese market for all 2026 tournament games. The agreement coincided with a separate agreement with Major League Baseball, who operates the tournament, for the global rights to air special events such as Opening Night, MLB at Field of Dreams and the Home Run Derby.This marks the first time Samurai Japan WBC games will not be available on terrestrial television in Japan. Although, most non-Japan games for the 2006-2023 tournaments were not available on terrestrial television, instead airing on the J-Sports paid CS premium channels. The agreement ended up being divisive among Japanese fans as it requires viewers to pay for a streaming service to watch the Japanese national team games. Proponents of the deal argued that the reaction by opponents was a form of galapagos syndrome because Netflix is a very known name globally, the market has changed to the point young people overall tend to use streaming far more over television, and, for the first time ever, all non-Japan games would be on a cheaper platform. Others also saw the TV-excluding deal as "positive news", due to what they called "Ohtani-fatigue", which caused by extensive coverage of Shohei Ohtani across Japanese terrestrial TV networks. Because of the deal, most of the terrestrial TV channels would focus at their timeslots on other programs other than live WBC coverage. As of January 2026, the only terrestrial TV channel that will provide the WBC coverage outside of the news programs will be Nippon TV, which they will produce 9 TV Specials during the tournament, taking advantage of its production partnership with Netflix. Samurai Japan games will also have free audio telecasts on the radio as Nippon Broadcasting System broadcast all of the Japanese national team games, while Nippon Cultural Broadcasting will broadcast one quarterfinal, one semi and the Finals, whether Japan was played either way. Radiko streaming service will cover entire radio broadcasts from both of the radio networks. Netflix has also confirmed it will allow public viewing of games and is working with local authorities for such events. |