The new standings in the rankings reflect recent results from the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup 2023 in Taiwan and the Baseball European Championship.
The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) has released the new WBSC Baseball World Rankings, which weigh a country’s National Team performance — from U-12 to Professional — in official WBSC-sanctioned international competitions over a four-year period.
Underscoring baseball’s growing status as a major global team sport, representatives from the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania are all present within the Top 10 of the WBSC Baseball World Rankings.
The new standings in the rankings reflect recent results from the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup 2023 in Taiwan and the Baseball European Championship (and consequently, the expiration of the points from the 2019 editions of both events).
The top-12 nations in the 2023 end-of-the-year ranking will earn their ticket to the III WBSC Premier12 presented by RAXUS, the WBSC’s flagship event which will be played from 10 to 24 November 2024. With less than three months to this decisive date, the race for the 9 to 12 positions in the ranking remains intense.
Puerto Rico has moved up two places from 13th place in the list and is back in the 11th position, inside the Premier12 qualification zone. The Boricuas overtook Panama, who are now in 12th position, and Italy (13).
In addition, the Dominican Republic gained one place in the rankings, taking Australia’s place as the No. 9 baseball programme in the world. The Oceania giant added 132 points with their 10th-place campaign at this year’s U-18 Baseball World Cup but, after dropping 377 points from the 2019 edition of the same tournament, they netted a 245-point loss which cost one place in the ranking. This switch was the only position change in the top-10.
The WBSC Baseball World Rankings web-based version and formula can be found at www.wbsc.org/rankings.
