WBSC Baseball World Rankings: Japan remains as world No 1 men's baseball programme

The WBSC revealed the end-of-the-year World Rankings for Men's Baseball today with Japan leading the way - a position it has held since 2014 - with 4,179 points on top of a list of 81 baseball programmes

The WBSC Baseball World Rankings measure National Team performance, from U-12 to the top level, in WBSC-sanctioned international competitions over a four-year period. The end-of-the-year rankings reflect the expiration of all points earned in 2018.

An update of the Women's Baseball World Rankings will take place in 2023.

Men's Baseball World Rankings in detail

Japan and world No. 2 Chinese Taipei (3,819 points) retained their positions in the World Rankings while the United States became the baseball programme which improved the most among the top 10 - thanks to its title triumphs at the WBSC U-12, U-15 and U-18 Baseball World Cups this year - moving from fifth to third position on 3,449 points.

Korea and Mexico both lost a position and rank now fourth and fifth respectively, followed by Venezuela, the Netherlands and Cuba. The three programmes all earned one place. At No. 7, the Netherlands lead the European programmes.

The Dominican Republic lost three positions and is now at No. 9 while Australia remained stable in 10th spot.

Positions from 11 to 20 are split between American and European programmes. Puerto Rico, now at No. 13, gained three places and became the most improved of the baseball programmes in this area of the rankings. No. 14 Canada and No. 17 Nicaragua both lost two positions.

Amongst the top 59 baseball programmes, Curaçao and Bulgaria made the highest gains moving up 11 places to 33rd and 57th respectively while the biggest movers were Mariana Islands and the Bahamas who moved up 18 and 16 places to 60th and 64th respectively.