In its fifth edition, the World Baseball Classic will start on March 8, with pool play spanning Japan, Taiwan, Florida and Arizona and featuring 20 teams. Two will advance out of each pool to compete in the quarterfinals in Tokyo and Miami. From then on, games will be played in Miami, with the semifinals on March 19 and 20 and the championship game on March 21 to conclude the tournament.
Which of the top teams will prevail?
Will Mike Trout help the United States defend its 2017 title? Can Japan win its third championship with Shohei Ohtani at the helm? Or will a stacked Dominican Republic team headlined by Manny Machado and Juan Soto secure a second title?
We ranked all 20 competitors — from those with the best chance at winning to those that are just happy to be there. ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez, David Schoenfield and Bradford Doolittle explain the rankings, identify a player to know for every team and give us an MLB equivalent for each of the top squads.
Let’s dive in.
Best chance to win
1. Dominican Republic
Why it could win it all: I mean, just look at that lineup. The position player portion of the Dominican roster boasts 34 trips to the All-Star Game, 20 Silver Sluggers and six Gold Gloves. The likes of Nelson Cruz and Robinson Cano, now in the late stages of their respective careers, absorbed a sizable chunk of those accolades. But this team is decorated with numerous superstars in the thick of their prime — Machado, Soto, Rafael Devers, Julio Rodriguez, Wander Franco, Jeremy Pena. It’s exhausting.
The only question here is how Dominican manager Rodney Linares will divvy up playing time, especially at second base, third base and shortstop, all of which are incredibly crowded. The pitching staff is almost as lethal, led by reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara and featuring a plethora of legitimate, late-inning bullpen arms (Rafael Montero, Gregory Soto and Camilo Doval, just to name a few).
Player to know:Cristian Javier burst onto the scene in Game 4 of the World Series, throwing the first six innings of a combined no-hitter. It was the lasting image to what had already been a brilliant season for the 25-year-old right-hander with a devastating fastball. Javier, originally obtained for $10,000, has since signed a five-year, $64 million extension with the Houston Astros and is poised to take the next step as one of the most dominant arms in the sport during the 2023 regular season. First, he’ll serve as a key member of the Dominican Republic’s starting rotation, which also includes Johnny Cueto and Roansy Contreras. It’s still March, so Alcantara can’t carry this staff the way he did the Miami Marlins last season. If the Dominican Republic is going to live up to lofty expectations, Javier will probably have to dominate too.
MLB team they remind us of: The 2023 New York Mets — if they had signed Carlos Correa. The presence of Correa would have given the Mets a ridiculous — and borderline unfair — amount of talent throughout their lineup, to go along with a devastating top of the rotation and an intimidating back end of the bullpen. That’s this year’s Dominican Republic squad. It’s loaded with premium defenders, dangerous base stealers, prodigious sluggers and some of the best pure hitters in the world, all backed by a deep cast of proven power arms. There’s a reason the DR is the prohibitive favorite.
— Gonzalez
2. United States
Why it could win it all: The U.S. is the defending champ and rolls out a lineup that is the strongest it has ever assembled in the World Baseball Classic and includes Trout for the first time. Indeed, while social media has initiated a love affair with the Dominican team and the Dominicans rank No. 1 here, based on 2022 numbers, the U.S. lineup is stronger. Using wRC+, the U.S. team features the No. 3 hitter from 2022 (Paul Goldschmidt), No. 4 (Trout), No. 8 (Nolan Arenado), No. 12 (Mookie Betts), No. 14 (Pete Alonso) and No. 16 (Jeff McNeil). Oh, plus it has the best catcher in the game in J.T. Realmuto, NL home run leader Kyle Schwarber and two of the best all-around players in Trea Turner and Kyle Tucker. This lineup is absolutely stacked and has to rank as one of the best in the sport’s history, whether in the WBC or even All-Star competition.
MLB team it reminds us of: The 2022 Los Angeles Dodgers, who led the majors in both runs scored and fewest runs allowed. Other teams can match or top the U.S. in starting pitching, but no team has the overall pitching depth of the U.S. from one through 15. Of course, we all know what happened to the Dodgers in the postseason.
— Schoenfield
3. Japan
Why it could win it all: Japan has won the World Baseball Classic twice already and returns with what might be its best, most balanced roster yet, featuring a compelling blend of proven major league talent, young NPB stars and veteran Japanese players who know what it’s like to navigate tournaments like these. We know the likes of Ohtani, Yu Darvish and Lars Nootbaar. But Masataka Yoshidasigned a five-year, $90 million contract with the Boston Red Sox this offseason and is a great pure hitter. Munetaka Murakami has won back-to-back Central League MVPs and is still only 23 years old. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is considered the best pitcher in Japan, coming off back-to-back Sawamura Awards (the NPB equivalent of a Cy Young). And Roki Sasaki might be even better.
Player to know: Major league scouts and executives are already salivating at the prospect of someday getting their arms around Sasaki, a 21-year-old right-hander who throws his fastball in the triple digits and nearly threw back-to-back perfect games last season. Sasaki finished the year with a 2.02 ERA and 173 strikeouts in 129⅓ innings. Murakami, meanwhile, posted a .318/.458/.711 slash line and accumulated a record 56 home runs. Late last season, while talking about the prospect of facing one another in the WBC, Ohtani told Trout he probably wasn’t the best pitcher nor the best hitter on Team Japan. Trout didn’t believe him. Soon, after getting an up-close look at Sasaki and Murakami, he just might.
MLB team it reminds us of: The 2001 Seattle Mariners. Led by a Japanese rookie named Ichiro Suzuki, those Mariners didn’t boast the sexiest of rosters, but they did everything well. They slugged, hit for average, stole bases, played sound defense and pitched extraordinarily well. By the end of the season, they won a whopping 116 games, establishing themselves as one of the most dominant teams in recent memory. That could be Samurai Japan.
