2025 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers
It still feels like the last WBC had just ended, but here we are determining the final teams that will qualify for the 2026 competition. Most teams from the previous run automatically qualified, but the last place team from each round 1 pool dropped out and had to earn their trip back against four hopeful upstarts. China, Taiwan, Nicaragua and Colombia all finished last in 2023, while Spain, South Africa, Germany and Brazil are looking to punch their ticket.
Now, this isn't the main attraction, so players in MLB are much less inclined to abandon their parent clubs in the middle of spring training to go compete, so there countries will rely mainly on lower level players and even a few former major leaguers. As a result, the qualifiers have a much weaker appeal without big names to market. There are still some familiar names involved in the showcases, with only China entering play with absolutely zero MLB names, so let's take a look at the players involved who have logged time in the MLB...
Spain (or Espainia if you're so inclined) has previous experience in the WBC. They first qualified in 2013 where they were beat up and dropped right back out to requalify. They're still looking to return to the big tournament.