BARCELONA, Spain — 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. The road to two of them runs through the 2027 WBSC Premier12, and the first qualifier for it starts Friday morning here.
What's actually at stake
Spain, Italy, Germany and Colombia play a three-day round robin from Oct. 9 to 11. The top two advance to the 2027 WBSC Premier12.
That tournament awards two Olympic berths — one to the highest-placed team from Asia, 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.
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.
So Friday is the first path to Olympic baseball in Los Angeles in 2028.
How to watch
All six games stream on GameTime, the WBSC's subscription platform. A tournament pass covering every game, live and on demand, is $14.99. DAZN has carried Premier12 coverage in select territories and may do so again.
All games are at Camp Municipal de Beisbol Carlos Pérez de Rozas in Barcelona.
Friday, Oct. 9
Colombia vs. Italy — 6 a.m. ET
Germany vs. Spain — 1 p.m. ET
Saturday, Oct. 10
Germany vs. Colombia — 6 a.m. ET
Spain vs. Italy — 1 p.m. ET
Sunday, Oct. 11
Italy vs. Germany — 6 a.m. ET
Spain vs. Colombia — 1 p.m. ET
Each team plays three games. With four teams and three games apiece, ties are likely. 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.
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.
The managers
Colombia is managed by Giovanny Urshela, who played ten major league seasons. 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.
Spain is managed by Marvin Benard, who played nine seasons for the Giants and managed Nicaragua at the 2024 Caribbean Series.
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 2023.
Colombia
World No. 13, the highest-ranked team in the field, and the only one of the four that reached the 2026 World Baseball Classic.
Luis Patiño, who has pitched for San Diego, Tampa Bay and the White Sox, is the most experienced arm. Catcher Daniel Vellojin and infielders Dayan Frías and Carlos Arroyo return from the WBC roster. Outfielder Jesús Marriaga has played three World Baseball Classics.
The roster turns over heavily from March. José Quintana, Julio Teherán, Donovan Solano and Harold Ramírez are all absent.
Colombia has never played in a Premier12.
Italy
World No. 14, and the only team in the field with Premier12 experience, from the inaugural edition in 2015.
Eighteen players from last September's silver-medal European Championship team are 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.
Giacomo Taschin makes his senior debut. 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 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, played for Italy at the Little League World Series in 2008 and pitched at Texas.
Robel García, the former Cub, is on the roster as a utility player. He won Honkbalweek Haarlem for Italy in July with a three-run homer in the eighth inning of the final.
Jeff Duda's full breakdown of Italy's roster is here.
Italy trained in the Dominican Republic from Sept. 20 to Oct. 4, playing six games against winter league clubs.
Spain
World No. 26, the host, and chasing a first Premier12 appearance.
Twelve players from the 2025 World Baseball Classic qualifier roster are on the team, along with 19 from the European Championship squad.
Pablo Guillén is the expected ace. 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 catches. 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.
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 will be his first appearance for Spain.
Luis Guillorme is the most familiar name to American readers.
Jeff Duda's full breakdown of Spain's roster is here.
Germany
World No. 17, and the only team in the field that has never played in either the Premier12 or the World Baseball Classic.
Markus Solbach is the ace at 35. 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. He threw 56 innings with a 2.25 ERA for the Bonn Capitals this year.
Niklas Rimmel 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.
Jeff Duda's full breakdown of Germany's roster is here.
How a Dominican plays for Spain
World Baseball Classic eligibility rules, which the WBSC applies across its tournaments, let a player represent a nation if he was born there, holds citizenship or permanent residency, has a parent or grandparent from there, has previously competed for that country, or meets the legal requirements for citizenship.
That is why Spain's 2025 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, with the rest qualifying through heritage.
Full breakdown of the eligibility rules here.
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.
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.
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
Active major league players have not been eligible for the Premier12 or for Olympic baseball. The 2019 United States roster, assembled under that rule, combined for 2.1 career WAR across 28 players, and failed to qualify for Tokyo.
That may change. 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.
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 will have coverage from Barcelona all weekend.