2026 World Baseball Classic qualification

The qualifying round of the 2026 World Baseball Classic, officially called the World Baseball Classic 2025 Qualifiers, was held from February 21 to March 6, 2025. The top four teams in each pool of the 2023 World Baseball Classic automatically qualified for the 2026 tournament. The qualifiers consisted of two tournaments with four teams each, and is held in Taipei, Taiwan, and Tucson, United States of America. Two teams of each tournament qualified for the 2026 World Baseball Classic.^[1]

World Baseball Classic 2025 Qualifiers

2025年第6屆世界棒球經典賽 資格賽
Tournament details
Countries	Taiwan  United States
Dates	February 21 – March 6, 2025[1]
Teams	8 (from 4 confederations)
← 2023

Qualified teams

Note: World ranking indicates positions in the latest WBSC World Rankings (December 31, 2024) at the time of the announcement of the qualifiers.^[2]

Team	World ranking	Method of qualification	Classic appearance	Previous best position
Australia	12th	2023 World Baseball Classic pool stage top four	6th	Quarterfinals (2023)
Canada	22nd		6th	Pool stage
Cuba	10th		6th	Runners-up (2006)
Czech Republic	15th		2nd	Pool stage
Dominican Republic	11th		6th	Champions (2013)
Great Britain	18th		2nd	Pool stage
Israel	19th		3rd	Quarterfinals (2017)
Italy	14th		6th	Quarterfinals (2013, 2023)
Japan	1st		6th	Champions (2006, 2009, 2023)
Mexico	4th		6th	Third place (2023)
Netherlands	7th		6th	Fourth place (2013, 2017)
Panama	8th		4th	Pool stage
Puerto Rico	9th		6th	Runners-up (2013, 2017)
South Korea	6th		6th	Runners-up (2009)
United States	5th		6th	Champions (2017)
Venezuela	3rd		6th	Fourth place (2009)
Nicaragua	16th	Pool A winner	2nd	Pool stage
Chinese Taipei	2nd	Pool A second-place playoff winner	6th	Quarterfinals (2013)
Colombia	13th	Pool B winner	3rd	Pool stage
Brazil	23rd	Pool B second-place playoff winner	2nd	Pool stage

Players

Main article: 2026 World Baseball Classic qualification rosters

Venues

Qualifier 1	Taipei	Tucson	Qualifier 2
Taipei, Taiwan			Tucson, U.S.
Taipei Dome			Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium
Capacity: 40,000			Capacity: 11,000

Pools composition

Note: Numbers in parentheses indicate positions in the latest WBSC World Rankings (December 31, 2024) at the time of the announcement of the qualifiers.^[2]

Pool A	Pool B
Chinese Taipei (2) (hosts)	Colombia (13)
Nicaragua (16)	Germany (17)
Spain (24)	China (20)
South Africa (31)	Brazil (23)

The format consisted of two rounds. The first round is a round-robin, with the teams playing each other once. After the six games from each group, the first-placed team qualified for the final tournament, while the second and third-placed teams play in a seventh game where the winner also qualified.^[1]

Pool A

Pool A took place at the Taipei Dome in Taipei, Taiwan, from February 21–25, 2025.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	RF	RA	PCT	GB	Qualification
1	Nicaragua	3	3	0	10	2	1.000	—	Final tournament
2	Chinese Taipei (H)	4	2	2	20	22	.500[a]	1.5
3	Spain	4	2	2	25	14	.500[a]	1.5
4	South Africa	3	0	3	3	20	.000	3

Source: MLB
(H) Hosts
Notes:

1. Chinese Taipei defeated Spain in the second-place playoff, 6–3.

Opening round

Date	Local time	Road team	Score	Home team	Inn.	Venue	Game duration	Attendance	Boxscore
February 21, 2025	12:00	South Africa	1–2	Nicaragua	10	Taipei Dome	2:30	14,925	Boxscore
February 21, 2025	19:00	Spain	12–5	Chinese Taipei		Taipei Dome	3:13	35,325	Boxscore
February 22, 2025	12:00	Spain	1–2	Nicaragua	10	Taipei Dome	2:58	15,015	Boxscore
February 22, 2025	19:00	Chinese Taipei	9–1	South Africa		Taipei Dome	3:05	35,868	Boxscore
February 23, 2025	12:00	South Africa	1–9	Spain		Taipei Dome	2:20	15,385	Boxscore
February 23, 2025	19:00	Nicaragua	6–0	Chinese Taipei		Taipei Dome	3:01	35,565	Boxscore

Second-place playoff

Date	Local time	Road team	Score	Home team	Inn.	Venue	Game duration	Attendance	Boxscore
February 25, 2025	19:00	Chinese Taipei	6–3	Spain		Taipei Dome	2:58	35,768	Boxscore

Pool B

The videoboard at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium before the game between Germany and Colombia

Pool B took place at the Kino Sports Complex's Veterans Memorial Stadium in Tucson, Arizona, United States, on March 2–6, 2025.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	RF	RA	PCT	GB	Qualification
1	Colombia	3	3	0	23	1	1.000	—	Final tournament
2	Brazil	4	3	1	27	18	.750[a]	0.5
3	Germany	4	1	3	23	27	.250[a]	2.5
4	China	3	0	3	5	32	.000	3

Source: MLB
Notes:

1. Brazil defeated Germany in the second-place playoff, 6–4.

Opening round

Date	Local time	Road team	Score	Home team	Inn.	Venue	Game duration	Attendance	Boxscore
March 2, 2025	11:00	China	2–12	Germany	7	Veterans Memorial Stadium	2:28	1,549	Boxscore
March 2, 2025	18:00	Brazil	0–5	Colombia		Veterans Memorial Stadium	2:23	2,332	Boxscore
March 3, 2025	11:00	Brazil	9–7	Germany		Veterans Memorial Stadium	3:05	2,193	Boxscore
March 3, 2025	18:00	Colombia	8–1	China		Veterans Memorial Stadium	2:39	1,259	Boxscore
March 4, 2025	11:00	China	2–12	Brazil	7	Veterans Memorial Stadium	2:30	3,566	Boxscore
March 4, 2025	18:00	Germany	0–10	Colombia	7	Veterans Memorial Stadium	2:07	2,137	Boxscore

Second-place playoff

Date	Local time	Road team	Score	Home team	Inn.	Venue	Game duration	Attendance	Boxscore
March 6, 2025	18:00	Germany	4–6	Brazil		Veterans Memorial Stadium	2:23	2,247	Boxscore

Statistical leaders

^[3]

Batting leaders
Statistic	Name	Total/Avg
Batting average*	Dilson Herrera	.583
Hits	Po-Hsuan Wang	8
Runs	Dante Bichette Jr.	5
Runs batted in	Rusber Estrada Jesús Marriaga	7
On-base percentage*	Po-Hsuan Wang	.632
Slugging percentage*	Jesús Marriaga	1.000
OPS*	Jesús Marriaga	1.538

* Minimum 2.7 plate appearances per team game

Pitching leaders
Statistic	Name	Total/Avg
ERA*	Adrián Almedia Yeudy García Jesús Garrido Pablo Guillén Dancaireng Hua Dilmer Mejía Julio Teherán Dylan Unsworth	0.00
Innings pitched	Yeudy García	7.0
Strikeouts	Ramón Rosso	9

* Minimum 0.8 innings pitched per team game

Broadcast

On February 3, alongside the first pool roster reveals, it was announced that the 2025 WBC qualifiers would be shown on the WBC YouTube channel, WBC Facebook page, MLB.tv and WBC website (WorldBaseballClassic.com).^[4] MLB Network will also broadcast select games for all its covered areas.^[5]

Like the 2022 qualifiers, qualifers and already qualified teams also have broadcast partners locally, as follows:

Territory	Rights holder(s)	Ref.
Brazil	ESPN Brasil[a] Disney+	[6]
China	BesTV [zh] Douyin Bilibili Weixin Weibo Kuaishou QQ Tencent Video	[6]
Colombia	Win Sports[b] Ditu[b] One Baseball Network Disney+	[6]
Germany	Sportdigital	[7]
Latin America (excluding Brazil)	One Baseball Network BeisbolPlay Disney+	[6]
Panama	COS Panamá	[6]
South Korea	SpoTV	[6]
Sub-Saharan Africa	ESPN Africa[c]	[6]
Taiwan	EBC[d] ELTA Sports [zh] VL Sports Chunghwa Telecom (MOD & Hami Video)	[8][9]
United States	MLB Network Fox Sports 2 Fox Deportes	[10]

Notes

1. Brazil games only
2. Colombia games only
3. South Africa games only
4. Cable broadcast only; not applied to EBC News YouTube livestream