The 2026 Caribbean Series will be played with five teams in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico at Estadio Panamericano, the home of the Charros de Jalisco of the Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico, from Feb. 1-7, 2026.
“The [change of host sites] was made following the approval of the proposal submitted by the LAMP, which originated from an initiative by the Charros de Jalisco organization,” the Confederacion de Besibol Profesional del Caribe said in a statement. “This decision was made after Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic announced their withdrawal from the originally planned venue in Greater Caracas, due to various logistical factors beyond the control of the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional.”
The move comes less than a week after the LAMP, the Dominican Republic’s LIDOM, and Puerto Rico’s LBPRC told the CBPC that they would not send their league’s champion to the Caribbean Series should it be played in Caracas, Venezuela, where the 2026 Caribbean Series had been planned to be played since 2024.
First reported by BeisbolPuro on X, the move of the series was announced at a a press conference at Estadio Panamericano, along with the change in participating teams. The five participating teams will be the champions of the Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico, Puerto Rico’s LBPRC, the Dominican Republic’s LIDOM, Panama’s ProBeis, and a second team representing the LAMP. The champions of Cuba’s Serie Nacional will not play in the Caribbean Series, and should the champion of the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional decide to participate, there is a spot for them should the league reconsider its participation.
“These two finalists will have the right to represent our country in the Caribbean Series. We will play using the same system as in Mexicali: Round Robin, where everyone plays everyone, the semifinals, and the final,” said Luis Gonzalez, the general manager of the Charros de Jalisco. “We are confident that, as always in Mexico, these Caribbean Series will be a great success, even with the short time we have to organize everything. Rest assured that the staff of the Mexican Pacific League, the Charros, and the other teams will put on a great celebration for all of us who love baseball and the Caribbean Series.”
RELATED: 10 Things to Know About Winter Ball Around the World For 2025-26
RELATED: Call the 2023 Caribbean Series What It Is – Sportswashing
RELATED: Notable Events In the 2025-26 Winter Ball Season
Speaking from the press conference dais, LAMP president Salvador Escobar said the plan to move the event to the Guadalajara area came together in less than a week.
“A resolution was made by the confederation on Monday, and the 2026 Caribbean Series was placed under the confederation’s responsibility,” Escobar said in Spanish. “This meant that since Monday, we have been working continuously to determine which of the member countries would be in a position to host the Caribbean Series. Therefore, two things were prioritized: first, to see where the necessary conditions existed, given the limited time, and second, to prioritize that the series be held in a member country for the benefit of the fans.”
Panama and Cuba had confirmed that they will play in the 2026 Caribbean Series as invitees, but a news report yesterday signaled that Panama’s ProBeis league is facing financial difficulty and may not play a season. If the ProBeis league doesn’t play a season, the league’s president, David Salayandia, told Panamanian news outlet Panama America that it would be difficult to send a team to the Serie de Las Americas and the Caribbean Series, the two postseason winter ball events in which the league planned to participate.
¡SERIE DEL CARIBE EN GUADALAJARA!
La edición 2026 de la Serie del Caribe será disputada en Guadalajara al ser aprobada como sede emergente por los miembros de la Confederación de Beisbol Profesional del Caribe (CBPC).
El anuncio será oficial en las próximas horas. La… pic.twitter.com/r5nJ8VuMu1
— Beisbolpuro (@Beisbolpuro) December 18, 2025
The possibility of the Caribbean Series pulling out of Venezuela has been rumored for over a year, but took on urgency over the past few months as military tensions between the United States and Venezuela have risen.
Estadio Panamericano previously hosted the Caribbean Series in 2018, taking on hosting duties after that year’s Caribbean Series was moved from Barquisimeto, Venezuela. The 2026 Caribbean Series would mark the 18th Caribbean Series played in Mexico, with Hermosillo and Mazatlán having hosted six times each, Culiacán and Mexicali twice each, and Guadalajara having hosted once.
This year’s Caribbean Series has already been moved once. In 2024, the CBPC announced the series would move to Caracas from Estadio Hiram Bithorn in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as San Juan had been named a host for pool play in the 2026 World Baseball Classic and needed more time to prepare the stadium than would be available should the stadium host the Caribbean Series.
Photo: Estadio Panamericano in Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico. (Photo courtesy of the WBSC Americas)
