Playball!
Get ready baseball fans as many of the top MLB players, including 16 major and minor leaguers from the Philadelphia Phillies, will compete in the World Baseball Classic starting this week.
The United States will look to avenge its loss to Japan in those finals in 2023. The US team, along with Japan, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela are favorites to win the international tournament.
This year’s competition has an added twist, with the top two finishers automatically qualified for the 2028 Olympics.
Here’s a look at rosters, schedules and other WBC details:
The 2026 World Baseball Classic begins Thursday, March 5 and lasts through Tuesday, March 17.
The action begins with a pool play round-robin portion that gets underway Wednesday, March 4. Taiwan will play Australian in Tokyo at 10 p.m. ET to kick off the tournament.
The World Baseball Classic will air in the United States on FOX, FS1, FS2, the FOX Sports App, FOX One and Tubi.
Stream 2026 World Baseball Classic live on Fubo
Once pool play begins, each five-team group will duke it out for a week, and the top two teams in each pool by the end of the round-robin stage move on to the quarterfinals. The knockout round will last a little less than one week with the WBC final closing out the tournament on March 17 in Miami.
USA Today contributed to this story.