The World Baseball Classic was a success in 2023. What will make it better in 2026?

MIAMI — When the idea for an international baseball tournament was hatched in the early 2000s, it was an enormous challenge to get off the ground. The thinking was it would be a step up from the All-Star tours in Japan or the one-off games played abroad. The idea was never for the World Baseball Classic to be a one-off, but those involved in the early days weren’t sure it wouldn’t ultimately end that way, either. There was only one goal for the inaugural competition in 2006.

“To have it be good enough for a second one,” said WBC president Jim Small, who stood on the field hours before a sellout crowd in Miami watched Team Japan win 3-2 over the United States, in a contest that could end up smashing the sport’s all-time viewership ratings. (Official numbers from Japan weren’t available at time of publication.)

The first WBC tournament was “a de novo experiment,” said former MLB president and COO Bob DuPuy, “but it exceeded expectations,” enabling the league to do it again in 2009 and 2013. Not even two decades later, the fifth iteration of the WBC — and first since 2017 due to the pandemic — was a rousing success commercially and on the field. More than 1.3 million fans in four worldwide locations came to the ballpark, with 11 of the 15 games in Miami total sellouts and lines of hundreds waiting to get into the onsite stores to buy merchandise hours before first pitch. Just a decade ago, the total attendance of the 2013 tournament was 885,212. Online sales of WBC merchandise on MLB’s shop and Fanatics were up 149 percent, while the four host venues had the highest sales in history and more than doubled their 2017 numbers.

The international TV viewership picture is incomplete, but we know that the March 10 contest between Japan and Korea drew more than 62 million worldwide viewers. The most-watched World Series game ever in the U.S. drew 54 million U.S. viewers — in 1980. We know that nearly half (48.7 percent) of Japanese households watched the quarterfinals against Italy and 42.5 percent of Japanese households watched Monday’s semifinal game against Mexico despite an 8 a.m. local start time. According to an MLB press release, Tuesday’s final was the most-watched WBC game ever in the U.S., drawing a combined audience of 5.2 million viewers.

We know teams like Israel have invested their prize money into more fields and better competition. And countries like Great Britain and the Czech Republic performed well enough for a spot in the next tournament, which Small said translates to “hundreds of thousands of dollars in development for baseball” in those places. (With 20 teams in the 2023 WBC — up from 16 — the last-place team in each pool was relegated and will have to earn their 2026 WBC spot in a qualifier tournament.)

There was only one field in the whole country. The prize money we have won has built a second field and broken ground on a third. In fact Israel is the confirmed host of the 2025 European Championships! pic.twitter.com/2o3ehdAGLP

— Ryan Lavarnway (@RyanLavarnway) March 15, 2023

Mexico’s manager Benji Gil got a standing ovation after his press conference Monday, where he conceptualized the ripple effect his team’s WBC run will have on baseball in his birthplace.

“We are worlds forward from where we were when we started the tournament,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said on Tuesday. “Start with the fact that we have so many more countries that are viable and competitive for the event. I think that’s probably the biggest change. Obviously, you start something, nobody has any feel for what it is. We are starting to get a following of people who understand the event, understand how important it is, have some sense of the history of the event.”

While detractors of the tournament remain, they’ve become the minority after weeks full of closely-contested games, interesting storylines and buy-in from every corner of the world.

“This thing is real,” first-time USA manager Mark DeRosa said after his team’s loss Tuesday night. “The WBC’s real.”

So what happens next?

Manfred confirmed Tuesday that the 2026 tournament will happen, though the bidding process for where it will take place has yet to be determined.

There is an expectation that MLB’s new rules, including the pitch clock, will be adopted for the next go-round, though that will have to be agreed upon by a rules committee and rules advisory board, with representatives from NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) and KBO (Korean Baseball Organization) as well as MLB players and general managers on staff. It’s also likely that the next tournament will mirror this one with two venues in Asia and two in North America.

While the WBC has never been afraid to tinker with things, the group closely watches the FIFA World Cup and Rugby World Cup and changed the WBC format (four pools of round-robin play heading into the knockout round) in part because they liked FIFA’s setup and wanted something similar. Yet the hosts of this year’s tournament left little to quibble about. (And it’s a far cry from the 2006 tournament when Venezuela’s national team played the Dominican Republic at the Braves’ spring training facility at Disney World, in a stadium that can only hold 10,000 people.)

Consider this: the 2023 WBC drew more fans to 47 games in two weeks than six big-league teams did for the entire regular-season schedule in 2022: Cleveland, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Miami, Tampa Bay and Oakland.

Miami, which averaged 11,203 fans at home last season, more than doubled that figure for each WBC contest at loanDepot Park. Marlins president of business operations Caroline O’Connor said Miami will absolutely be an interested bidder to host again in three years.

“I think the way the fans showed up and the energy they brought, it would be hard for another city to compete with the experience here,” she said. “We know that there are baseball fans here. For us, we look at it as an opportunity to make that connection and have people come back as Marlins fans.”

This year’s WBC semifinals was the most-watched semifinal round in the U.S. of any previous tournament. The two games — Mexico against Japan and the United States against Cuba — averaged 2.403 million viewers, an increase of 96 percent from 2017.

“This is absolutely going to be a catapult for international baseball, and also for MLB and TV,” Small said. “People watching baseball in March is a good thing. We know there’s going to be an add-on effect for the MLB season, but also you look at the ratings in Tokyo that’s going to translate a lot to the NPB and that’s very valuable to them. We will get, I think, some of the same love in terms of people wanting to watch Ohtani and see what a great baseball player he is. There’s a real wind at our sails and we’re gonna take advantage of that, and not just for this season.”

Some of the game’s biggest stars — including Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani — have pledged to be back. Team Mexico, which had a surprisingly deep run, has already begun plans for 2026. Trea Turner, whose grand slam propelled Team USA into the championship, also plans to return. Up and down each roster, players have talked about the passion, the energy, the fun of playing for their respective countries.

It’s hard to sum up into words what these last couple of weeks have meant to me. I had the time of my life representing that USA on my chest! The energy was electric and made the WBC a moment I’ll always cherish. So thank you all so much. It was an honor to be your captain. 🫡🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/V5TOEaKpu7

— Mike Trout (@MikeTrout) March 22, 2023

This gives me the chills. The energy and passion is different! 🇵🇷 @Lindor12BC @javy23baez pic.twitter.com/ZMCwYF2JD0

— Marcus Stroman (@STR0) March 12, 2023

Before the tournament ended, players on Team USA talked about going back to their spring camps and recruiting teammates for the next WBC. This was the first tournament where the league didn’t have to ask any American-born players to participate, as there was already enough interest. Having Trout be the first guy with his hand up made a difference. The U.S. lineup was the deepest it’s ever been, featuring stars like Mookie Betts, Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt alongside Trout and Turner. Former National League MVP Bryce Harper would have joined them if he wasn’t sidelined with an elbow injury.

“Most of the world, the biggest competition is nation versus nation. We’re the only country where the Super Bowl (team against team) is probably the most watched,” Small said. “We knew that the world was ready for a national team competition for baseball. Now we see that America is ready for it, too. And that’s really important. We’ve seen it this year, but we also saw it in ‘17 when the U.S. won and we’ve been able to build on that.”

Still, unable to defend their title, many American players worry if they don’t get more top pitchers to compete they won’t have a chance at getting to the later rounds as other countries close the gap. In Japan, the WBC is a great honor. Yu Darvish didn’t even show up in Padres camp because the veteran — who played in the 2009 WBC — wanted to be a leader and help set the tone. Mexico had 20 guys on a 40-man MLB roster. And Venezuela was so good this year that pitcher Lance Lynn likened facing them to pitching in an All-Star Game. Despite a stacked lineup, the U.S. couldn’t get one of the 14 American-born pitchers who got a Cy Young vote last year to play for them.

“I don’t think it’s the players, I think it’s on the teams. I’m sure guys want to be here and they’re not allowed for whatever reason,” Turner said. “I would say 90-95 percent of players would like to play in this but it’s pretty easy (for teams) to say the different things about needing to prepare for the season and be ready to pitch for (that). I think pitchers are a little different and teams have a lot of say-so.”

This isn’t a new problem. In 2006, former commissioner Bud Selig told the Associated Press all the managers and pitching coaches of teams were “very sensitive” about the potential for pitchers to be injured in the WBC.

Should MLB teams have the power to tell players if they can participate in the WBC? 🤔@aj_pierzynskiFT shares that the White Sox shut down his chance in 2006 pic.twitter.com/pA87MVxll2

— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) March 22, 2023

“Look, you can always pick at something, but there’s a broader picture, a grander picture,” Selig said at the time.

The league, so far, has been largely unsuccessful in convincing most organizations of that, though Manfred said Tuesday he’d like to see more MLB star pitchers in the next WBC. How to get more organizations to cooperate, particularly with the injury risk, isn’t easy.

“That was always the issue, how many, how long and how risky?,” DuPuy said of big-league pitcher participation in the WBC, where the most notable pitcher injury was Mets closer Edwin Diaz, who is out for the season after suffering a knee injury celebrating Puerto Rico’s win over the Dominican Republic.

Changing the timing of the tournament is not happening. According to Manfred, Smalls and everyone associated with the WBC, there’s no better time on the calendar. In November, players are exhausted from the season and pitchers generally shut it down that whole month. Having it during the year would cause havoc on guys who don’t play, who would then have to do what exactly? Take a few weeks off from playing games?

The easiest solution seems to be having stricter limitations on pitcher usage, though there’s a worry that would water down the intensity of the tournament and give it more of a Little League feel. (Imagine Mets ace Max Scherzer only going an inning in an elimination game, for example.) Manfred noted that having frequent communication between WBC teams and each pitcher’s MLB club is an important piece for the league, as is compiling data from previous participants.

“It’s not lobbying,” Manfred said of getting teams on board. “It’s having facts to support it — that pitching in high-leverage situations like these are…that actually helps players develop.”

Turner thinks giving organizations incentives would help them get comfortable with the risk.

“Fix everything with money,” he said. “Wherever the money is, that’s where people go. It’s sad the world works that way, but it answers everything.”

Whether MLB will be able to get owners comfortable with the risk to increase pitcher participation in three years remains to be seen.

What is undisputed is the impact this tournament is having on the sport by attracting young fans and casual fans across the globe, as well as giving players something to aspire to. Lars Nootbaar said he wanted to represent Japan since he was 9. Mexico’s Patrick Sandoval was in Class A the last time the WBC was on and told himself he’d be in the next one. Ohtani, the MVP of this year’s tournament, said he hopes kids watching at home will feel what he did when watching the WBC: a need to be part of it. Kyle Schwarber likened the tournament to baseball’s Olympics and praised the tournament’s ability to showcase players who aren’t in MLB on a big stage.

People who don’t enjoy the tournament should take a cue from the players who have all praised it. Baseball doesn’t want its fans or players to compare the WBC to the playoffs or the World Series, they want it to stand alone.

“I don’t foresee or actually want the tournament to be bigger than our traditional format,” Manfred said. “The World Series is always going to be the World Series. But I don’t see it as an either-or proposition. This is a different kind of competition. We do it to grow the game and internationalize the game.”

Added Small: “Look into the future, the players had so much, the fans have engaged with this in record numbers. We know we still have a long way to go. But everyone is looking forward to maintaining that momentum. We think eventually we’re going to be able to see each WBC get a little bit better.”

(Top photo: Megan Briggs / Getty Images)