This week, the Italian parliament approved a new law regarding citizenship by descent or jus sanguinis by way of the Tajani Decree. The decree was signed by Italy’s prime minister back in March. It is expected that Italy’s president will be signing this into law, with it retroactive to March 28th, by next week. The new law will ensure that people of Italian descent born abroad are only eligible for citizenship if their parent or grandparent was born in Italy. If your grandparent was a relative born in Italy, they would have to renounce their non-Italian citizenship to be able to pass it on to you. A parent is the only one with dual citizenship born in Italy who can pass Italian citizenship to their child.
Italy has had very relaxed laws regarding citizenship eligibility in the past.
This will have massive ramifications for Italy at the 2026 World Baseball Classic and all future WBCs. Players who played for Italy at the prior WBCs will remain eligible, but MLB players and minor leaguers of Italian descent who haven’t played for Italy and are without at least one grandparent born in Italy, will no longer be eligible should this become an official law in the next week. This will significantly alter how Italy builds its rosters. Players born and raised in Italy will have a much greater chance of playing for Italy at the WBC.
One of the knocks on Italy at the WBC was the lack of Italian-born players on their 2023 roster. Just three players on their 2023 team were born in Italy. With the development in recent years of Italian youth baseball, that number was going to rise in 2026, but this law could see a huge jump in Italian-born players.
LHP Samuel Aldegheri and RHP Alessandro Ercolani, prospects for the Angels and Pirates, respectively, are expected to be on the 2026 roster, but with this potential new law, they will be joined by quite a few arms from Serie A, Italy’s top domestic league.
Some of these could include Matteo Bocchi, Ettore Giulianelli, and Gabriele Quattrini. Bocchi was on the 2023 team and has a 1.18 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 38 innings in 2025 for Parma. Giulianelli, who was in the minors last season in A ball, has a 3.08 ERA and 35 strikeouts in 26 1/3 IP for BBC Grosseto. Quattrini has 35 strikeouts in 34 innings and a 2.65 ERA for Hotsand Macerata. Italian-American Andre Pallante should also be in the rotation.
Offensively, Vinnie Pasquantino, Dominic Fletcher, and Sal Frelick should all be back. Before this decree was put together, Jac Caglianone, one of the best prospects in all of baseball, was expected by many to be on this team. That is now very much in doubt. It would be a significant loss for this team.
Italy will likely look to more players from their domestic league to fill roster spots among position players. A few of these players include Nettuno IF Manuel Zazza and BBC Grosseto IF Renzo Martini. Zazza had an OPS of .941 in 2024 and, after a slow start this year, is starting to get it going this past week. He was part of Italy’s Olympic camp this past fall.
Martini is originally from Venezuela and has represented Italy in international play. The 32-year-old is hitting .404/.451/.638 with 3 HR in 12 games. He’s on pace for his best season of his career.
C Albert Mineo is likely to be on the Italian roster as well. In 2025, he had an .863 OPS for Parma.
There will be a few Italian prospects in the Complex League and Dominican Summer League as well. Pitchers Giacomo Taschin and Filippo Sabatini will be in the Dominican Summer League and will look to try to crack the Italian roster. Williams Wong is in the Arizona Complex League and has one at-bat this year.
Unless there is a change in eligibility requirements for future WBCs, this new law is set to completely change the look of Italian rosters at the world’s biggest baseball tournament and mark the start of a new era of Italian baseball.
