2023 World Baseball Classic

The 2023 World Baseball Classic, the sixth edition of the World Baseball Classic, is scheduled to take place from March 8-21, 2023, with games played in three countries: the United States, Japan and Taiwan. Qualifiers for the tournament are scheduled to take place a year earlier, in September 2022. The event would be the first Classic in six years after the 2021 World Baseball Classic was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The semi-finals and finals will take place at LoanDepot Park in Miami, FL.

The 2023 edition of the tournament expanded to 20 participants, from 16 in the previous four editions, spread among four first-round pool. This guaranteed each team one extra game. All 16 teams from the 2017 tournament received an automatic entry, with the four extra teams emerging from the qualifiers - United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Nicaragua and Panama - only Panama had participated in the past, most recently in 2009. In late December 2022, MLB reached an agreement with Cuban officials opening the door for Cuban refugees to play for the Cuban national team without being repatriated, a first. That allowed Cuba to potentially bring in players like Yoan Moncada and Luis Robert, whohad never represented Cuba in a senior-level tournament.