Meet the new boss! Same as the old boss. Benji Gil will again manage Mexico in the World Baseball Classic in 2026, Septima Entrada’s Irving Furlong reported Thursday.
“He has never stepped down, he is at the front,” Horacio de la Vega, the president of the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol told Septima Entrada. “Unless someone has taken him down. I haven’t and the owners of the LMB haven’t either, so he remains at the front of the Mexico national team.”
Gil, 52, led Mexico to a third place finish at the 2023 WBC, winning Pool C at Chase Field in Phoenix with a 3-1 record and advancing to the knockout stage in Miami. After beating Puerto Rico 5-4 in the quarterfinal, Mexico fell to eventual champion Japan 6-5 in the semifinals.
“This team …will give us a lot to talk about, and will make us dream of being champions again,” said Benjamín Gil. “It’s a goal. It could be the most important thing in my life, winning a [WBC] championship. …I think it would be hugely satisfying to raise the trophy and say ‘Mexico is the world champion’ in what is not supposed to be our national sport.”
Gil manages the Charros de Jalisco in both the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol and the Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico. In the LMB, Gil led the Charros to a 36-56 record, but was more successful in the winter, leading the Charros to the LAMP title and the Caribbean Series final, where they lost to the Dominican Republic’s Leones del Escogido 1-0. It was the fifth LAMP title for Gil as a manager, who also won the winter championship with the Tomateros de Culiacan in 2015, 2018, 2020, and 2021.
He also managed Mexico at the 2024 WBSC Premier12, where they failed to advance out of pool play after going 2-3 at Estadio Panamericano in Guadalajara, Jalisco.
A native of Tijuana, Mexico, Gil played eight seasons in Major League Baseball with the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels, posting a .237/.283/.358 batting line with 32 homers and 171 RBIs in 604 career games. After his MLB career ended, Gil played in Mexico with the LMB’s Toros de Tijuana, Sultanes de Monterrey, Dorados de Chihuahua, and Guerreros de Oaxaca and in the LAMP with the Tomateros de Culiacan, Aguilas de Mexicali, and Algodoneros de Guasave.
