24-year-olds eligible to play in postponed 2021 U-23 Baseball World Cup

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) today ruled to expand the age category for the 2021 U-23 Baseball World Cup in Mexico to include players up to the age of 24, as a result of the one-year postponement of the event.

The III WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup, originally scheduled for this year, was recently postponed to 24 September to 3 October 2021, due to safety measures against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“Due to the one-year postponement of the tournament, the WBSC has decided to make a one-time exception to expand eligibility, allowing all players who would have been eligible to participate in 2020 to represent their countries in the 2021 tournament,” said WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari. “It’s the highest honour in baseball to play for your country and we wanted to do everything possible to serve the athletes while preserving the integrity of the original 2020 event.”

The decision also allows the possibility of those turning 18 years old in 2021 to be included on National Team rosters.  

Accordingly, players born in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 will be eligible to participate in the 2021 WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup.

WBSC World Cup Regulations indicate that 18-23 years old players are eligible for National Team selection in the U-23 Baseball World Cup, and this regulation will be restored for the IV WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup, following the conclusion of the 2021 U-23 World Cup.

The 12 qualified teams competing for baseball’s world title at the U-23 Baseball World Cup remains as follows:

• Africa (1): No. 24 South Africa
• Americas (4): No. 5 Mexico (host, defending World Champion), No. 7 Cuba, No. 8 Venezuela, No. 15 Nicaragua
• Asia (3): No. 1 Japan, No. 4 Chinese Taipei and No. 22 China
• Europe (2): No. 16 Czech Republic and No. 19 Germany
• Oceania (1): No. 39 New Zealand
• Wild Card (1): No. 3 Korea

Mexico won the last U-23 Baseball World Cup, which was held in Barranquilla, Colombia, in October 2018. It was Mexico’s first-ever official world title in the sport of baseball.

Previous U-23 Baseball World Cups have included the top young professional players from clubs affiliated to the Australian Baseball League (ABL), Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), Major League Baseball (MLB), Mexican Baseball League (LMB), Nicaraguan Professional Baseball League, Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), in addition to other leagues around the world.