The four team captains put their hands in before the WBSC Premier12 2027 Barcelona Qualifier, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, in Barcelona. From left: Alberto Mineo of Italy, Eric Brenk of Germany, Omar Hernández of Spain and Jesús Marriaga of Colombia.·(WBSC)
BARCELONA, Spain — Spain and Italy are going to the 2027 WBSC Premier12.
Spain clinched Saturday night with a 5-2 win over Italy to finish group play 2-0, reaching the Premier12 for the first time in the program’s history. Italy took the last spot Sunday morning, shutting out Germany 5-0 to return for the first time since 2015. Germany finished 1-2 and Colombia 0-2 heading into the final game.
Italy manager Francisco Cervelli (29) high-fives his players before the quarterfinals of the World Baseball Classic, Saturday against Puerto Rico, March 14, 2026, in Houston. — (AP Photo/Karen Warren)
What they actually won
Three of the six spots in the 2028 Olympic baseball tournament are already taken. The United States qualified as host. Venezuela and the Dominican Republic qualified by reaching the final of the World Baseball Classic in March.
The other three are still open, and the road to two of them runs through the Premier12. That tournament awards one Olympic berth to the highest-placed team from Asia and one to the highest-placed team from Europe or Oceania. Seven programs are eligible through the Europe/Oceania path: Australia, Czechia, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.
So Spain and Italy have not qualified for Los Angeles. They have qualified for the tournament where a Los Angeles berth will be on the line.
The sixth and final Olympic spot comes out of a qualifying tournament no later than March 2028, featuring the top two unqualified teams from the Asian Championship, two from the European Championship, one from Oceania and the Africa Cup winner.
Sunday, Oct. 11 Italy 5, Germany 0 · Recap · Replay Spain vs. Colombia — 1 p.m. ET · Stream
Where to watch
All six games are on the WBSC YouTube channel outside Spain and Italy. DAZN carries the tournament for subscribers in Spain and internationally, except in Italy, where RAI Sport carried Italy’s games on its digital terrestrial channel. Viva Nicaragua carried it in Nicaragua. All six are also on GameTime, the WBSC’s subscription platform, with a tournament pass at $14.99.
All games were played at Camp Municipal de Beisbol Carlos Pérez de Rozas in Barcelona.
What’s next
One qualifier remains, in Zhongshan, China, from Nov. 26-28: Nicaragua, Czechia, China and Great Britain for the last two spots in the 16-team Premier12 field.
These teams were close before
Spain and Germany both played in the 2025 World Baseball Classic qualifiers and missed by a game.
In Taipei, Nicaragua went 3-0 and advanced. Chinese Taipei and Spain both finished 2-2. South Africa went 0-3.
In Tucson, Colombia went 3-0 and Brazil 3-1, both advancing. Germany finished 1-3, China 0-3.
Colombia got through to the World Baseball Classic. Spain and Germany did not. This time Spain went through and Germany came up a game short again.
Colombia's Giovanny Urshela strikes out against the United States during the fifth inning of a World Baseball Classic game in Phoenix, Wednesday, March 15, 2023. — (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
WBSC world rankings (As of October 8, 2026)
WBSC Men’s Baseball World Rankings as of Oct. 8, 2026. — (WBSC)
Colombia came in as the highest-ranked team in the field at No. 13, followed by Italy at 14, Germany at 17 and Spain at 26. The lowest-ranked team in the group won it, and the highest-ranked team went home without a win. Michael DeLuca on the updated WBSC rankings.
WBSC Men's Baseball World Rankings as of Oct. 8, 2026. — (WBSC)
Colombia enters as the highest-ranked team in the field at No. 13, followed by Italy at 14, Germany at 17 and Spain at 26. Full WBSC rankings here.
The managers
Colombia is managed by Giovanny Urshela, who played ten major league seasons and was on Colombia’s World Baseball Classic roster in March. Dilson Herrera and Sugar Ray Marimón, both former major leaguers, are on his staff.
Italy is managed by Francisco Cervelli, who took the Azzurri to the World Baseball Classic semifinals in March and now spends much of the year in Italy working on the program.
Spain is managed by Marvin Benard, who played nine seasons for the Giants and managed Nicaragua at the 2024 Caribbean Series. Adam Jones, the five-time All-Star who spent eleven seasons in Baltimore, is on the staff, as is Hensley Meulens, the former Giants hitting coach who managed the Netherlands to the World Baseball Classic semifinals in 2013 and 2017.
Germany is managed by Jendrick Speer, who made his international debut at 16 in 1997 and made the All-Tournament team at the 1999 European Championship. He played for the Untouchables Paderborn through five straight German pennants and has managed the national team since Colombia
World No. 13, the highest-ranked team in the field, and out of the tournament after two games.
Luis Patiño, who has pitched for San Diego, Tampa Bay and the White Sox, was the most experienced arm and started the opener against Italy. Catcher Daniel Vellojin and infielders Dayan Frías and Carlos Arroyo returned from the WBC roster. Outfielder Jesús Marriaga has played three World Baseball Classics.
The roster turned over heavily from March. José Quintana, Julio Teherán, Donovan Solano and Harold Ramírez were all absent.
World No. 14, back in the Premier12 for the first time since the inaugural edition in 2015.
Eighteen players from last September’s silver-medal European Championship team were on the roster.
Giaconino Lasaracina is the power. The Venezuela-born catcher posted a 1.701 OPS with a tournament-high six home runs at the European Championship, signed with Toronto, and hit .970 OPS with 14 homers in his first minor league season. He drove in Italy’s first run of the tournament against Colombia.
Giacomo Taschin made his senior debut here and threw four scoreless innings with seven strikeouts against Germany to send Italy through. The left-hander was the 2024 U-18 European Championship MVP and spent this season in the same Toronto affiliates as Lasaracina. The two are believed to be the first Italian battery in minor league history.
Claudio Scotti closed out both the opener against Colombia and the clincher against Germany. He pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings for Italy at the World Baseball Classic and started Parma Clima’s championship-clinching game in the Italian Baseball Series.
Matteo Bocchi, now with Parma, started the opener and pitched again in relief Sunday. He played for Italy at the Little League World Series in 2008 and pitched at Texas.
Robel García, the former Cub, played third base. He won Honkbalweek Haarlem for Italy in July with a three-run homer in the eighth inning of the final.
Italy trained in the Dominican Republic from Sept. 20 to Oct. 4, playing three games against winter league clubs.
Spain's Gabriel Lino swings away during the fourth inning of a World Baseball Classic qualifying game against Taiwan in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. — (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Spain
World No. 26, the host, and into the Premier12 for the first time.
Twelve players from the 2025 World Baseball Classic qualifier roster were on the team, along with 19 from the European Championship squad.
Pablo Guillén was the expected ace, though Jose David Gómez Bolívar started the clincher against Italy and went five scoreless. Guillén, the Cuban-born right-hander, has not allowed an earned run across 17 innings in two international tournaments and was named Spain’s domestic MVP this year with a 1.33 ERA.
Omar Hernández caught, and moved to left field against Italy. Born in Cuba, developed in Spain, now in the Kansas City system. At the 2023 European Championship he posted a 1.397 OPS and led Spain to its first European title in 68 years. He played four games for Cuba at the World Baseball Classic in March. He drove in the tying runs against Germany in the opener, and took the qualifying banner from WBSC president Riccardo Fraccari after Spain clinched.
Elier Hernández, born in San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic, played 14 games for Texas in 2022 and two seasons with the Yomiuri Giants before hitting .272 with 16 home runs for Durango in the Mexican League. He was traded to Tigres del Licey in the Dominican winter league this week. Barcelona was his first appearance for Spain.
Luis Guillorme is the most familiar name to American readers. He went 3-for-5 and scored the winning run in the 10th against Germany.
World No. 17, and still without an appearance in either the Premier12 or the World Baseball Classic.
Markus Solbach is the ace at 35. He started the opener against Spain and struck out eight over 6 2/3 innings on 108 pitches. He reached Triple-A in 2021 and 2022 and came close to becoming the first pitcher born and raised in Germany to reach the majors, and threw 56 innings with a 2.25 ERA for the Bonn Capitals this year.
Niklas Rimmel started the elimination game against Italy and gave up five hits in two innings. He threw 124 2/3 innings between the regular season and playoffs, second in the German league, and led it with a 1.80 ERA.
Yannic Walther is the only active German minor leaguer on the roster, a 22-year-old catcher in the Milwaukee system. He hit the first home run of the tournament.
Christian Pedrol, born in São Paulo, threw the tournament’s only complete game, striking out 10 in a 6-1 win over Colombia that kept Germany alive.
The WBSC requires a valid passport from the country a player represents. That is stricter than the World Baseball Classic, which allows a player to qualify through a parent or grandparent without holding citizenship.
So the Cuban, Dominican and Venezuelan-born players on Spain’s roster hold Spanish passports. Spain’s federation has naturalized foreign-born players for years, which is why its 2025 World Baseball Classic qualifier roster carried 27 players born outside Spain — ten from Venezuela, nine from the Dominican Republic, six from Cuba, one from Colombia and one from the United States. Jorge Balboa was the only Spanish-born player on it.
Germany works the other way. Fifteen players on its 2025 qualifier roster were born in Germany.
Japan players celebrate the team's 5-3 win against South Korea in the Premier12 baseball tournament final game at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019. — (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Why the Premier12 is worth your time
The WBSC created the Premier12 in 2015 after the Baseball World Cup and Intercontinental Cup were discontinued and baseball was dropped from the Olympics.
Fourteen programs have played across the three editions. Ten have played all three: Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Chinese Taipei, the United States and Venezuela. Australia and Canada played twice. Italy and Panama once each.
That is what the expansion to 16 changes. Spain has never been. Italy has been once, eleven years ago.
Shohei Ohtani made the All-World Team in the first edition at 21, after throwing 13 scoreless innings with 21 strikeouts. South Korea won it. Japan won in 2019 with Seiya Suzuki as MVP, five years before he signed with the Cubs. Chinese Taipei won in 2024, beating Japan in the final.
In this Nov. 19, 2015, file photo, Japan's starter Shohei Ohtani pitches against South Korea during the first inning of their semifinal game at the Premier12 world baseball tournament at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo. — (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)
The rosters are a preview of what’s coming. Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw six shutout innings in Japan’s Olympic opener in 2021 and Munetaka Murakami hit the home run that won the gold medal game — both are in this year’s Division Series. Ha-Seong Kim and Jake Cronenworth played in 2019. Drake Baldwin caught for the United States in 2024 and is Atlanta’s starting catcher now. Chandler Simpson made the 2024 All-World Team and starts in left field for Tampa Bay.
The eligibility question
Players on 40-man rosters are not eligible. Affiliated minor leaguers who are not on a 40-man can play.
That rule has shaped these tournaments for a decade. The 2019 United States roster, assembled under it, combined for 2.1 career WAR across 28 players and failed to qualify for Tokyo.
The Olympics may be different. Rob Manfred has publicly supported major league participation in 2028, and MLB has proposed an extended All-Star break from July 9 to 21 that would accommodate it. Nothing has been agreed with the players’ association.
Barcelona and baseball
The 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona awarded baseball’s first Olympic medals. Cuba won gold, Chinese Taipei silver, Japan bronze.
The Carlos Pérez de Rozas field sits on Montjuïc, the hill that held those Games, inside the Olympic Ring. It served as a training ground in 1992 and is named for a sports photographer who was a longtime advocate for the game in Spain.
It hosted group play at the 2009 Baseball World Cup, with Cuba, Puerto Rico, Spain and South Africa.
What comes next
The second qualifier is in Zhongshan, China, from Nov. 26 to 28. No. 15 Nicaragua, No. 16 Czechia, No. 18 China and No. 20 Great Britain compete for the other two spots. GameTime sells a separate pass for that tournament at the same price.
Each team plays three games. Two-way ties break on head-to-head. Three-way ties go to Team Quality Balance, a run-differential formula adjusted for innings played, counting only games between the tied teams.
The 2027 Premier12 expands to 16 teams with a four-stage format. The Taipei Dome hosts one opening round group and one second round group. The Super Round and medal games are at the Tokyo Dome, which has hosted the finals of all three previous editions. Three opening round sites and one second round site have not been announced. Pool assignments come in April 2027. The champion is crowned Nov. 21, 2027.
The Olympic tournament runs July 13 to 19, 2028 at Dodger Stadium. Six teams, 24-player rosters, two groups of three.
World Baseball Network covered the Barcelona qualifier on site.
18+ where permitted; availability varies by region. Prediction-market prices are for information only — not financial or betting advice. WBN may earn a referral reward when you join or trade on Polymarket through our links.
Colombia Closes the Barcelona Qualifier With an 8-3 Win Over Spain
Jesús Marriaga homered and Colombia broke the game open with a five-run eighth to take the final game of the WBSC Premier12 2027 Barcelona Qualifier. Spain had already clinched. Frank Hernández was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
