It’s World Baseball Classic time, and if you’re approaching it with anything other than enthusiasm or curiosity, you’re doing it all wrong.
There’s some extremely high-quality baseball about to happen. It’s extra baseball, a little treat before the main course, if you want it to be. But it just might be the main course, the most enjoyable baseball you see this year. That’s how good the quality of play was in 2023, and it’s how good the rosters look for all participants in the 2026 WBC.
For the most part. It can get a little sloppy in the first rounds.
Here’s a guide to who’s in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, sorted into five tiers based on how likely they are to win the delightfully snazzy and elegant championship trophy.
Here be the titans, the pillars of the sport, the countries with All-Stars, MVPs and Cy Young Award winners. Japan has one guy who’s all three, if you can believe it. Only three countries have won a WBC championship, and they’re all in this tier.
And while it’s hard to pick a best of the best out of this group, it’s only fair to give the top spot to the three-time champs, who will be defending their title.
With all the confidence in the world. Last year’s World Series was dominated by the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Team Japan’s biggest stars aren’t just coming into the tournament thinking they’re the favorites just because they won in 2023; they’re thinking they’re the favorites because they just helped a team win the World Series just a few months ago. Why not this team, too?
Your normie baseball friends will talk about Ohtani, who both “hits” and “pitches,” although not at the same time, because that would be against the rules.
Here’s your chance to be much, much cooler than those friends, though. Instead of Ohtani, talk up Okamoto, a star in the making, who got a $60 million contract from the Blue Jays in the offseason. Or let them know that Munetaka Murakami has 265 career home runs in NPB, even though he just turned 26 this month. His high-strikeout ways scared teams off over the winter, but if the White Sox can tap into even a fraction of his potential, he’ll become a perennial All-Star.
Clearly smarting from their second-place finish in the last tournament. If there were any doubt, compare the rotation from the last WBC to this one:
Team USA rotation, 2023 vs. 2026
The five best options for Team USA in 2023 were all solid pitchers at the time, a quality group of arms. The five best options for Team USA in 2026 are the best the sport has to offer. It’s an absolutely nasty rotation, and you know it had to take some serious cajoling and/or firm words for these pitchers to convince their teams to let them have a high-effort spring like this. These colors might not run, but these pitches aren’t free, either. They might be at the expense of a deep October run.
That’s weenie talk, of course. And there are limits: Tarik Skubal will pitch just one game, against Great Britain on Saturday, in the WBC, with Skenes and Webb pitching just two, not that they were at risk of throwing a half-dozen high-leverage outings. Still, that’s a lot of breathtaking talent in this rotation. And bullpen. And lineup. I think they want to win.
There isn’t room for a single prospect on a roster this loaded, and there’s definitely not a Christian Laettner-type bone to throw toward a college star. That’s a team that would probably win 120 games this season. Heck, that could even be enough to win the NL West.
With something to prove. The last time they were here, they lost games to Venezuela and Puerto Rico and didn’t even make it out of the first round. Their pool won’t be nearly as brutal this time around, and you’d have to think it’s championship or bust.
Like the two previous teams in this tier, this isn’t a place for young rascals without major-league experience. Except, while there aren’t any prospects in the bullpen, there also aren’t exactly a lot of veterans, either.
Hiraldo appeared in just 18 games for the Orioles in his rookie season, and Peguero appeared in just 17 with the Giants. Still, you have to get pretty far down the bullpen ladder to start worrying too much.
Also, why are you looking at the bullpen at all? Look at some of the other names! You can list off three of the best players on the roster without leaving the outfield, even though there’s a chance that everyone in the infield makes the Hall of Fame (or at least gets plenty of votes).
Again, you wouldn’t be surprised if any of the teams in this tier won it all. It’s hard not to be starstruck with any of these three rosters.
These are the teams just outside of the big three, where the rosters aren’t quite talented enough to draw comparisons to the 1927 Yankees, but all of them could win it all.
The differences between this tier and the one above it are a couple of players. A starter here, a reliever there … don’t overthink it. It’s just that the three teams above them are pretty spectacular.
With something to prove. They advanced to the final in 2013 and 2017, only to suffer an unsatisfying end in 2023, blowing an early lead in the knockout round of the last tournament. While Puerto Rican baseball, in general, has suffered lasting damage from being subject to the MLB Draft, you wouldn’t know it by their recent showings on the biggest international stage.
There are All-Stars on the roster, but it’s hard to say it’s festooned like the other ones in this tier. Still, they sneak above the teams below them thanks to their relative success in the WBC. I’m not entirely sure what the results of the 2007 team (featuring Pudge Rodríguez and Bernie Williams) have to do with the 2026 WBC, but I’m a sucker for easy-to-spot patterns. They’re so pretty. And most of the time, Team Puerto Rico advances every time.
Edwin Arroyo (CIN) Luis Quiñones (TOR) Eduardo Rivera (BOS) Elmer Rodríguez (NYY) Ricardo Velez (TEX)
Finally, some minor leaguers for the prospect hounds among us. Arroyo is a former top-100 prospect who’s still highly regarded, and Rivera is a power forward of a lefty (6-foot-7) who had an excellent stint in the Puerto Rican Winter League. It’s not a prospect collection that will keep Keith Law awake at night, but it’ll be fun to see them against elite competition.
Not feeling as good as they were when Pablo López was healthy. The Venezuelan team has the most lopsided ratio of “World Baseball Classic success” to “continuing impact on Major League Baseball,” and it isn’t particularly close. They’re facing an uphill battle logistically, too, with several of their players having difficulty with insurance, visas, or both.
Carlos Guzman (NYM) Christian Suarez (LAD)
Really, the ratio of players in the majors vs. the ratio of players in the minors tells you just about everything you need to know about these teams. There’s just no room for prospects. Guzman is a reliever with more than 500 innings in the minors, and while Suarez is more of a traditional prospect, he’s still a reliever who isn’t expected to throw high-leverage innings.
If Mike Trout vs. Shohei Ohtani happened in the 2026 WBC, there would be a small but significant percentage of the population that would have believed the video was AI-generated and never actually happened. That’s how perfect a baseball moment it was.
Apologies, but it’s not going to happen again. For one thing, Mike Trout isn’t on the U.S. Roster, but the bigger complication is that it was too perfect. It wasn’t even just the best pitcher in the game vs. the best hitter; they were freaking teammates in the regular season.
However, don’t despair. In the place of a once-in-a-lifetime matchup, you can count on something a lot more reliable. All of these teams can make it out of pool play. It’s just going to take a little bit of magic.
With a little more swagger than normal. This is one of the most talented Team Canada squads in a long time, even as they’re without two of their all-time biggest stars.
They don’t have Freddie Freeman this time, and they’ve been without Joey Votto since 2013. They do have those charming Naylor fellas, however, and even without their biggest superstar, this might be one of the most talented rosters Team Canada has ever fielded. Both the lineup and rotation feature established major leaguers.
In a 162-game season against teams like the U.S. and Japan, this team would struggle to avoid 100 losses. That’s not being rude; that’s just comparing Baseball-Reference pages. In a short tournament like this, though, it’s enough major league talent to win any given game. Look at all those legitimate major leaguers.
Micah Ashman (BAL) Eric Cerantola (KC) Indigo Diaz (ARI) Antoine Jean (COL) Adam Macko (TOR) Matt Wilkinson (CLE)
The best story, though, might be Macko, who was born in Slovakia. He wasn’t born there while his family was temporarily living there, either; dude was a Slovakian first-grader obsessed with Justin Verlander, and he didn’t move to North America until he was a sophomore in high school. The whole point of the WBC is to get more stories like this.
With more to prove than almost any other team. The popularity of the KBO and the success of players like Ha-Seong Kim, Merrill Kelly and Jung Hoo Lee has made Korea one of the major baseball powers, but they haven’t come close to an All-Star-level breakout for any homegrown players, and they haven’t made it out of the first round since President Barack Obama’s first term. That’s not great for a team representing a baseball-mad country, and they have to be feeling plenty of pressure.
Lee is the biggest star for Team Korea right now, even if he’s just finding his footing in the majors, and Jones gives them a power threat in the outfield. If you’re looking for someone new to catch your eye, though, take a long look at Hyun Min Ahn, who just turned 22 and had a monster rookie season in the KBO. In a few years, you’ll be screaming for your team to sign him, and you might as well start right now.
With a lot of confidence and a burgeoning talent pool. Mexico had its best WBC finish ever in the last tournament, and the team has an assortment of everyday players and pitchers. The sport is currently undergoing a popularity boom in Mexico, and you can already see the results trickling upward.
Kirk is a two-time All-Star and one of the best offensive catchers in the game, but the real strength of the team might be with the even younger players, like Alejandro Osuna and Jonathan Aranda.
