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2026 World Baseball Classic qualification

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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
DatesFebruary 21 – March 6, 2025[1]
Teams8 (from 4 confederations)
← 2023

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]

Qualified teams

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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

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Main article: 2026 World Baseball Classic qualification rosters

Venues

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

Pools composition

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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

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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. ^ a b Chinese Taipei defeated Spain in the second-place playoff, 6–3.

Opening round

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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

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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

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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. ^ a b Brazil defeated Germany in the second-place playoff, 6–4.

Opening round

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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

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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

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[3]

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

* Minimum 2.7 plate appearances per team game

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

* Minimum 0.8 innings pitched per team game

Broadcast

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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
[6]
China
[6]
Colombia
[6]
Germany Sportdigital [7]
Latin America (excluding Brazil)
[6]
Panama COS Panamá [6]
South Korea SpoTV [6]
Sub-Saharan Africa ESPN Africa[c] [6]
Taiwan
[8][9]
United States
[10]

Notes

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

References

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  1. ^ a b c "World Baseball Classic Qualifiers announced". MLB.com. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  2. ^ a b "WBSC/KONAMI World Rankings". WBSC.org. Retrieved 16 November 2024.
  3. ^ "Stat leaders". Major League Baseball. Retrieved March 19, 2025.
  4. ^ "Everything to know about World Baseball Classic Qualifiers starting Feb. 21". MLB.com. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
  5. ^ "MLB Network TV Schedule". MLB.com. Archived from the original on 2025-02-24. Retrieved 2025-02-24.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g "Where to Watch the 2025 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers". MLB.com. Archived from the original on 2025-02-23. Retrieved 2025-02-23.
  7. ^ Scheel, Marco. "Sportdigital1+ | TV-Programm". Sportdigital1+ | TV-Programm (in German). Archived from the original on 2025-03-03. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
  8. ^ "經典賽資格賽懶人包》臺北大巨蛋主場迎戰3外隊力拚晉級 賽程、轉播、名單、票價一次帶你看". Yahoo Sports Taiwan (in Chinese). 2025-02-03. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
  9. ^ "2025經典賽資格賽賽程、參賽隊伍、票價、轉播資訊總整理 - 棒球". 運動視界 Sports Vision (in Chinese). 2025-01-25. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
  10. ^ "FOX Sports Live Event and Studio Programming Schedule". Fox Sports Press Pass. Archived from the original on 2025-03-03. Retrieved 2025-03-03.
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