The 2023 World Baseball Classic kicks off tonight, technically Wednesday locally in Taiwan but the time difference will make it late Tuesday night for those watching in the Western Hemisphere. This will be the first time the tournament is held since 2017, as the pandemic threw the tournament off its planned four-year schedule and led to the postponement of the 2021 edition.
The first two tournaments in WBC history were won by Japan, followed by the Dominican Republic in 2013 and the United States in 2017. Puerto Rico was the runner-up in each of the past two tournaments, while South Korea and Cuba also have second-place finishes. Venezuela and the Netherlands have also made it as far as the semifinals.
This tournament figures to be perhaps the most star-studded edition thus far, as many of the top MLB players steered clear of previous iterations of the WBC. That doesn’t appear to be the case this year, with many marquee players suiting up. The American team features Mike Trout, Nolan Arenado, Mookie Betts and plenty of other All-Stars. The DR will have Manny Machado, Julio Rodríguez and Juan Soto. Shohei Ohtani is playing for Japan, Freddie Freeman for Canada, Francisco Lindor for Puerto Rico, Jose Altuve for Venezuela, Xander Bogaerts for the Netherlands, Tommy Edman for Korea, Julio Urías for Mexico, Joc Pederson for Israel and Vinnie Pasquantino for Italy. For the first time, the Cuban team will feature MLB players, with Luis Robert and Yoán Moncada coming aboard. There will also be plenty of intriguing players who have yet to make the jump to North America, such as Munetaka Murakami, Roki Sasaki, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jung Hoo Lee. The full rosters can be found here.
Many outlets consider either USA or DR to be the favorites, but there are many other star-studded rosters. Perhaps we’ll get a crazy upset from a Czech Republic team that’s manned by firefighters, real estate agents and school teachers and was recently profiled by David Waldstein of The New York Times.
What do you think? Who’s going to win it all this time? Have you say in the poll below! (Link to poll)