Chinese Taipei announced their roster for the 2023 Asia Professional Baseball Championship, which will be held from November 16-19 at the Tokyo Dome.
The Asia Professional Baseball Championship will also have Japan, Chinese Taipei, and Australia participate in the U-24 event.
The APBC is a U-24 event and is also considered an international senior tournament, as each team can carry three players on the roster between the ages of 24 and 29. The APBC roster eligibility requires that players have three years or less of service time in professional baseball. This is the only U-24 event sanctioned by the World Baseball Softball Confederation.
Japan is ranked at No. 1 in the world and South Korea is ranked No. 4 in the World Baseball Rankings. Chinese Taipei is No. 5.
Australia is ranked at No. 11 in the world and is in the World Baseball Softball Confederation Oceania sector. If Australia can medal at the APBC, the nation could qualify for its second consecutive WBSC Premier 12 tournament in the history of their nation. Australia is in front of No. 11 Puerto Rico and No. 12 Panama as of October 5, when the rankings were last updated.
The Premier 12 tournament will start on Nov. 10, 2024, after the regular seasons in Major League Baseball, Liga Mexicana de Beisbol, Nippon Professional Baseball, the Korean Baseball Organization, and the Chinese Professional League in Taiwan.
Chinese Taipei lost in the gold medal game of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, to No. 4 ranked South Korea 2-0 in early October.
Chinese Taipei went 2-2 during the 2023 World Baseball Classic and will have to qualify for the next tournament in 2026. Chinese Taipei hosted Pool A of the 2023 World Baseball Classic with Italy, Cuba, Panama, and the Netherlands participating during the early round of the tournament, and finished last because of the Total Quality Balance tie-breaking criteria.
This the second APBC event to be held. The first was in 2017, with Japan taking the gold medal over South Korea 7-0. Seibu Lions utility player Shuta Tonosaki was named the MVP of the first APBC.
Chinese Taipei will participate in the event for the second time in the APBC and finished in third place during the 2017 tournament when it was three teams.
Chinese Taipei will be the host at the Asia Baseball Championship at the start of December. This will be their fourth international senior event tournament during the 2023 international baseball calendar cycle from December 3-10 at the Asia Baseball Championship at the Taipei Dome and Taichung Intercontinental Stadium in Taiwan.