The top 12 teams in the World Baseball Rankings promulgated by the WBSC. (Graphic courtesy of WBSC)
By Matthew Tallarini
World Baseball Network
The World Baseball Softball Confederation announced the final World Baseball Rankings and points for 2023 on Dec. 31.
The top 12 teams at the end of 2023 are: Japan with 5,797 points, Mexico with 4,764 points, the United States with 4,492 points, South Korea with 4,353 points, Chinese Taipei with 4,170 points, Venezuela with 3,975 points, the Netherlands with 3,288 points, Cuba with 3,121 points, the Dominican Republic with 2,667 points, Panama with 2,534 points, Australia with 2,367 points, and Puerto Rico with 2,355 points.
Only six countries changed ranking positions in the latest rankings. Norway climbed three spots from No. 67 to No. 64. The United States Virgin Islands dropped from No. 64 to No. 65. Bangladesh and Ecuador fell from No. 65 to No. 66. Finland rose from No. 73 to No. 72. Romania fell from No. 73 to No. 74.
The countries that made significant jumps in the World Baseball Rankings in 2023 are Costa Rica, which rose 22 places to No. 54; Hong Kong, which rose 21 ranking spots to No. 32; the Philippines, which moved up 12 positions to No. 28, El Salvador, jumping 11 spots to No. 50, and the United States Virgin Islands, which moved up 10 spots to No. 65.
The WBSC Premier 12 was originally scheduled for November 2023 and was moved to 2024 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, which caused multiple major events to be rescheduled. The World Baseball Classic, the Olympics and the WBSC Premier 12 cannot be held in the same year.
The World Baseball Softball Confederation announced the 12 teams that qualified for the 2024 Premier 12 tournament on December 18.
The top 12 teams in the Dec. 31, 2023 World Baseball Rankings have qualified for the 2024 WBSC Premier 12, which will start on November 10. Panama will appear in its first Premier 12 tournament this November.
This will be the third WBSC Premier 12 tournament. South Korea won the inaugural Premier 12 in 2015 and Japan won in 2019.
The 2024 WBSC Premier 12 will take place from Nov. 10-24, 2024, with the Tokyo Dome hosting the Super Round and medal games. The Super Round will be from November 21-23 at the Tokyo Dome, followed by the bronze and gold medal games on November 24.
The WBSC will announce where the Premier 12 tournament games will be streamed on their social media pages during the upcoming months.
The WBSC Premier 12 will be the only international senior event on the 2024 international baseball calendar.
The point calculation by the WBSC includes results from all international age group events from the previous four years in the World Baseball Rankings.
Results from the 2019 international baseball calendar have now been dropped from the rankings. The results from the 2020-23 international baseball calendars will be used to calculate the World Baseball Rankings in 2024.
