The Kingdom of the Netherlands will be playing in their fifth World Baseball Classic in their nation’s history, where they are 11-13 all-time. During the last two World Baseball Classics, the Netherlands made back-to-back semifinals appearances in 2013 and 2017.
The Netherlands is ranked seventh in the world by the World Baseball Softball Confederation. They are one of the five nations representing the WBSC Europe sector in this year’s World Baseball Classic. Italy, Israel, Czech Republic and Great Britain are the other four in the 20-team tournament field.
Building their with players from the Kingdom, the Antilles, Aruba and Curacao, the Netherlands has a lot of talent in the pool for their national team in senior and age group events, and will start in Pool A of the World Baseball Classic in Taichung, Taiwan from March 8-13. In Taichung, they will face Italy, Cuba, Panama and host nation Chinese Taipei during the start of the tournament.
Netherlands manager Hensley Meulens will once again be at the helm, managing in his third consecutive World Baseball Classic, and has a lot of players returning from the 2017 team. Players such as Xander Bogaerts, Didi Gregorius, Andrelton Simmons, and Jurikson Profar will drive the Netherlands offensively.
Players outside of Major League Baseball and playing in their federation’s professional league, the Honkbal Hoofdklasse, other international leagues, independent leagues, current free agent professionals, and the high minor leagues will also appear on the kingdom’s roster. The Koninklijke Nederlandse Baseball en Softball Bond is the governing body for baseball and softball in the Netherlands. The Netherlands has heavily scouted Curacao’s baseball circuit, which has three levels of professional baseball run by the Federashon di Beisbol di Korsou.
The Netherlands will have a great group of veteran players this time around that have played in multiple World Baseball Classics and senior events as well. The Netherlands have played in five Olympics, but did not qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. With 24 gold medals in the European Baseball Championship, the Netherlands have won the most of all nations in the WBSC Europe sector. The last senior event the Netherlands participated was the 2021 European Championship, where they beat Israel to win the gold medal.
