Mexico climb to second in WBSC Men’s Baseball World Rankings, highest position ever
The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) announced today the updated WBSC Men’s Baseball World Rankings, after the conclusion of two of the biggest continental multi-sports events in the world - the Asian Games and the Pan American Games. Mexico moved above USA in the list after their bronze medal in the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, and reached their highest position ever in the ranking.
Mexico earned 319 points with the bronze medal in the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games baseball competition, enough to claim second place in the ranking for the first time with a total of 4,709 and move USA to third position (4,492). Japan still lead the way with 5,572 points.
The Pan Am Games also awarded important points to Panama and Colombia, who both gained two places and sit now in 10th and 13rd position respectively. Panama grabbed 264 points as a result of their fourth place in Santiago while Colombia added 430 points thanks to their historic gold medal campaign.
Chile, host of the Pan American Games, re-entered the rankings 10 months after losing all their points on 31 December 2022. The 43 points earned in the Pan Am Games allowed them to enter in 50th place in the world. Brazil claimed the silver medal in Santiago and replaced China as No. 23 in the world.
The Asian teams received points for their Asian Games exploits but also saw points from the 2019 Asian Championship removed. Therefor it didn’t alter the positions of the three superpowers, since Japan, No. 4 Korea and No. 5 Chinese Taipei stay in the same position. No. 32 Philippines and No. 37 Hong Kong, China, lost 58 and 43 points respectively, and dropped two and five positions.
The top-12 nations in the 2023 end-of-the-year ranking will earn their ticket to the III WBSC Premier12 presented by RAXUS, the WBSC’s flagship event which will be played from 10 to 24 November 2024.
The total number of baseball programmes in the ranking is 80.
The WBSC World Rankings count the points from all sanctioned tournament across all age groups over a four year period. The complete formula can be found at www.wbsc.org/rankings.
