The fifth edition of the World Baseball Classic, which serves as the Official World Championship for National Teams of the WBSC, will take place from March 9-21, 2023 and will be expanded to 20 teams from the previous 16-team format of 2017.
The 16 participants of the 2017 World Baseball Classic have been invited to play in the 2023 tournament. They will be joined by four teams advancing from two qualifying tournaments, scheduled for September 16-21 at the Armin-Wolf-Arena in Regensburg, Germany. , and from September 30 to October 5 at the Rod Carew National Stadium in Panama City, Panama.
OPENING ROUND
The first round of the 2023 World Baseball Classic will feature four groups of five teams for round-robin play.
The Intercontinental Stadium in Taichung, Taiwan will host Group A from March 9-13:
Taipei Chino
Cuba
Italia
Netherlands
qualifier winner
The Group A teams are currently ranked in the WBSC Baseball World Rankings as follows: No. 2 Chinese Taipei, No. 8 Netherlands, No. 9 Cuba and No. 17 Italy.
The Tokyo Dome will host Group B from March 9-13:
Japan
Australia
Porcelain
Corea
qualifier winner
Group B features the current world no. 1 Samurai Japan National Baseball Team, winners of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2019 WBSC Premier12, along with No. 3 Korea, No. 10 Australia and No. 21 China.
Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona will host Group C from March 11-15:
USA (Defending World Baseball Classic Champions)
Canada
Colombia
Mexico
qualifier winner
The highest-ranked team in Group C is No. 4 Mexico, followed by No. 5 USA (silver medalists at Tokyo 2020), No. 11 Colombia and No. 12 Canada.
LoanDepot Park in Miami, Florida will host Group D from March 11-15:
Dominican Republic
Israel
Puerto Rico
Venezuela
qualifier winner
No. 6 Venezuela is currently the highest-ranked team in Group D, followed by Tokyo 2020 bronze medalists No. 7 Dominican Republic, No. 16 Puerto Rico and No. 20 Israel.
QUARTER FINALS
On March 15 and 16, the Tokyo Dome will host the quarterfinal matches between the top two finishers from Groups A and B.
Miami will host the Quarterfinals between the first two teams from Groups C and D, with matches played on March 17 and 18.
SEMIFINALS AND FINAL
The semifinals and finals will take place March 19-21 and are also scheduled to be in Miami, making LoanDepot Park the first venue to host games in all three rounds of an edition of the World Baseball Classic.
