National Team 28-man rosters revealed for WBSC Premier12
Representing the 12 highest-ranked baseball nations and territories in the world, rosters for the WBSC Premier12 feature athletes who have experience in the top professional baseball leagues in the world.
Players bring experience from the premier professional baseball leagues in the world
View/Download Rosters (PDF)
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) today published the 28-man rosters of the 12 National Teams competing in this November’s WBSC Premier12®, the top international baseball tournament of the year and Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualifier.
As per WBSC tournament regulations, the Premier12 is an open event and teams can make up to eight substitutions to their rosters prior to their first game. All players/citizens are eligible to compete on their respective National Team, subject to the agreement of the respective leagues/clubs.
Representing the 12 highest-ranked baseball nations and territories in the world — No. 1 Japan, No. 2 USA, No. 3 Korea, No. 4 Chinese Taipei, No. 5 Cuba, No. 6 Mexico, No. 7 Australia, No. 8 Netherlands, No. 9 Venezuela, No. 10 Canada, No. 11 Puerto Rico and No 12 Dominican Republic — Premier12 rosters feature athletes who have experience in the top professional baseball leagues in the world.
Selections to the National Teams include players who are currently active or have played in the Australia Baseball League (ABL), the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), the Cuban National Series, the Dominican Republic Professional Baseball League (LIDOM), the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) League, Major League Baseball (MLB), the Mexican Baseball League (LMB), the Mexican Pacific League (LMP), Minor League Baseball (MiLB), Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) League, Puerto Rico’s Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League (LBPRC) and the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (LVBP).
Among the National Team managers for the WBSC Premier12 are MLB World Series winners (USA’s Joe Girardi and Netherlands’ Hensley Meulens), a two-time MLB American League Most Valuable Player (Juan Gonzalez – Puerto Rico), an eight-time NPB All-Star and 2006 Japan Series MVP (Atsunori Inaba – Japan), the winningest manager in CPBL history (I-Chung Hong – Chinese Taipei), the 2008 Olympic Gold winning manager (Kim Kyung-moon – Korea), a 2004 Olympic silver medallist (Dave Nilsson – Australia) and a Canadian Hall of Famer and former MLB All-Star (Ernie Whitt – Canada).
Shaping into one of the most important international baseball events in recent history, the 2019 WBSC Premier12 will award two tickets to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, in addition to $5.2 million USD in prize money.
