Going over which teams are in each pool for 2023 World Baseball Classic

The 2023 World Baseball Classic will serve as an exciting precursor to the upcoming MLB season for baseball fans across the globe.

It’s the first time the tournament has taken place since 2017, when team USA won its first title, because of the COVID pandemic. Each of the 16 teams that participated in 2017’s WBC automatically qualified for the 2023 tournament. That means the reigning champs are back (+275), along with the favorites, the Dominican Republic (+200), and the most fun team in 2017’s bracket, team Israel (+15000).

The tournament has expanded to 20 total teams, though. That means the return of Panama, who hasn’t qualified since the 2009 tournament. Three teams, Great Britain (+50000) the Czech Republic (+50000) and Nicaragua (+20000) will be making their first appearance in the tournament too.

The 20 teams are broken down into four pools with five teams each. The top two teams in each pool will move on to the quarterfinals. The title game will be in Miami on March 21.

Here’s a breakdown of the whole field pool by pool. The tournament starts on March 8.

2023 World Baseball Classic pools

Pool A

Chinese Taipei
Netherlands
Cuba
Italy
Panama

Pool B

Japan
Korea
Australia
China
Czech Republic

Pool C

USA
Mexico
Colombia
Canada
Great Britain

Pool D

Puerto Rico
Venezuela
Dominican Republic
Israel
Nicaragua