The Field Is Set for the 2026 World Baseball Classic

The World Baseball Classic is coming back in 2026.

The WBC qualifying tournaments took place over the past couple of weeks, one at the end of February and the other at the beginning of March. Nicaragua and Chinese Taipei came out on top in the first qualifier, while Colombia and Brazil were victorious in the second.

Spain, South Africa, Germany, and China failed to earn a tournament berth in the qualifiers. While some of the eliminated countries were underdogs to begin with, China’s ousting comes as something of a surprise. Team China competed in each of the first five WBC tournaments.

Nicaragua, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, and Brazil will join the 16 nations that qualified for the 2026 WBC by finishing as one of the top four teams in their pool in the 2023 tournament. Thus, the complete 20-team field for next year’s World Baseball Classic is now officially set.

The 2026 WBC: Pools, Venues, and Key Dates

The sixth World Baseball Classic will take place from March 5-17, 2026, at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Daikin Park in Houston, Texas; LoanDepot Park in Miami, Florida; and Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan.

The 20 contending teams will be split into four pools of five teams each, with each pool to play in a different city. San Juan will host Pool A, Houston will host Pool B, Tokyo will host Pool C, and Miami will host Pool D. The first round will take place from March 5-11.

The subsequent rounds will be played in the United States, with Houston hosting the quarterfinals (Mar. 13-14) between the top two teams from Pool A and Pool B and Miami hosting the quarterfinals (Mar. 13-14) between the top two teams from Pool C and Pool D.

Finally, the semifinal matches (Mar. 15-16) and championship game (Mar. 17) will take place at loanDepot Park in Miami, just as they did in 2023.

Here are the 20 nations set to compete in next year’s World Baseball Classic:

Pool A – San Juan	Pool B – Houston	Pool C – Tokyo	Pool D – Miami
Puerto Rico	United States	Japan	Venezuela
Cuba	Mexico	Australia	Dominican Republic
Canada	Italy	South Korea	Netherlands
Panama	Great Britain	Czech Republic	Israel
Qualifier	Qualifier	Qualifier	Qualifier

Each of the 16 teams listed above returns from the 2023 WBC. Puerto Rico, Cuba, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Italy, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and the Netherlands have played in every WBC since the tournament’s inception.

Panama returns for a fourth WBC, while Israel will compete for the third time. Great Britain and the Czech Republic are back after making their WBC debuts in 2023.

The four teams that earned entry to the 2026 WBC by way of the qualifying tournaments have not yet been assigned to pools. Those teams are as follows:

Nicaragua

Chinese Taipei

Colombia

Brazil

Chinese Taipei has participated in every iteration of the World Baseball Classic, while Colombia is competing for a third time. Nicaragua is back for a second WBC. Finally, Brazil will be making its first World Baseball Classic appearance since 2013.