World Baseball Classic 2026 Pool B preview: Will Italy or Mexico advance? And does Team USA have the best WBC roster ever?

With the Winter Olympics in the rearview, it’s time for baseball’s international competition to move into the spotlight. That’s right: We’re one week away from the start of the 2026 World Baseball Classic, the sixth edition of the tournament.

Over the next few days, we’ll preview all 20 teams set to participate in the WBC. We covered Pool A here. Next up is Pool B, which features Brazil, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico and the United States and begins play on March 6 in Houston.

Tournament history: This is Brazil’s second WBC. The team went 0-3 in 2013 but kept things respectably close against Japan and Cuba.

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First game: March 6 vs. USA, 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. local)

Key players: Just three arms on Brazil’s roster — Eric Pardinho, Daniel Missaki and Gabriel Barbosa — pitched in an affiliated baseball game last season. Missaki, who appeared in the 2013 WBC as a 16-year-old, is probably the most qualified character to start against Team USA. He threw 74 innings of 4.38 ERA ball in Triple-A last season. Enzo Sawayama punched out six in a crucial qualifying game against Germany last March. He has never pitched in affiliated ball but suits up in Japan for Yamaha’s company team, which won the country’s Amateur Baseball Championship last year. Presumably, he will start one of Brazil’s games.

Guy you don’t know yet but should: Joseph Contreras is the son of longtime MLB starter José Contreras but could end up being a lot more than that. Still just 17 years old, the younger Contreras is committed to pitch at powerhouse Vanderbilt next year, but he might get enough money in the upcoming draft to ditch college altogether. While understandably raw, Contreras’ heater is comfortably in the mid-90s.

Biggest strength: The inherent randomness of baseball. Listen, the best hitters on the planet return to the bench seven out of 10 times. A 120 mph lineout counts the same as an infield fly. Bloops, dunks, infield hits and other batted-ball tomfoolery tend to ensure a relative balancing of the scales. Perhaps Brazil can coax the baseball gods to sleep for long enough to conjure a miracle.

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Biggest weakness: The roster. Perhaps the following sentiment is unnecessarily cruel or rude, but Brazil’s opening game against Team USA might showcase the single largest talent discrepancy to ever grace a ballfield. Nobody on the Brazilian squad has ever appeared in an MLB game. The Americans might have 10 Hall of Famers. We’ve never seen such a fascinating baseball experiment.

Tournament outlook: For Brazil, simply qualifying for the WBC is an incredible accomplishment. These will be the biggest games of every player’s life. That is legitimately cool. With that in mind, avoiding a football score against the United States would be an enormous moral victory. A showdown with Great Britain presents Brazil’s best opportunity for an improbable win, but just looking like a normal, competent, not embarrassing baseball club would be enough. Vai, Brasil, and good luck.

Read more: 6 major takeaways from the reveal of the WBC rosters

Tournament history: After debuting in 2023, Great Britain is back for its second WBC. The fightin’ Union Jacks were a nice surprise last time, with a win against Colombia and close, hard-fought losses against the USA and Mexico.

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First game: March 6 vs. Mexico, 1 p.m. ET (12 p.m. local)

Key players: Jazz Chisholm Jr., born and raised in the Bahamas like much of this roster, appeared for Great Britain numerous times during his amateur career, but this will be his first WBC appearance. The swaggering second baseman was named a co-captain of Team GB alongside Nationals catcher Harry Ford, who went deep twice as a 20-year-old in the 2023 tournament. That relatively proven tandem will lead the offense, but it’ll be up to Rays pitching prospect Gary Gill Hill to set the tone on the bump. As a 20-year-old, “GGH” threw 136 ⅔ strong innings in High-A last year. Sashimi raw he might be, but Gill Hill’s stuff is a tier above that of anybody else on this staff.

Guy you don’t know yet but should: Heading into 2020, Kristian Robinson was a consensus top-50 prospect in the sport, an athletic unicorn built like an NFL tight end with elite power potential. But a mental health episode during the pandemic, during which Robinson punched a police officer after being found wandering on the side of a Phoenix-area highway, derailed his march to potential stardom. After missing all of 2020, ‘21 and ‘22, Robinson has gradually crawled his way up the minor-league ladder. He’ll probably never become the player he could have been, but that he has gotten this far is a testament to his perseverance.

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Biggest strength: Team speed. Chisholm swiped 31 bags for the Yankees last year. Robinson stole 34 in the minors. BJ Murray took 20. Harry Ford stole 34 two years ago. Indie ballers Justin Wylie and Nick Ward stole 37 and 20. Nate Eaton had only nine steals in limited big-league time, but he graded out in the 98th percentile of sprint speed. The point is this group can fly. They’ll need to sneak their way on base, but if they do, watch out.

Biggest weakness: Pitching. Only two British arms are currently on 40-man MLB rosters: Miami’s Michael Peterson and San Francisco’s Tristan Beck, both of whom are relievers. This rotation looks paper thin, with 38-year-old former big leaguer Vance Worley set to get a start despite not having pitched in MLB since 2017. Remember, Team USA put up 18 on these guys in 2023.

Tournament outlook: In a weaker group, Great Britain would be a fun dark horse, thanks to all that Bahamian position-player talent. Unfortunately, it’s tough to see this squad upping either the USA or Mexico, which it would need to do to escape this pool. But maybe Chisholm catches fire, and this fleet-footed lineup overcomes the total dearth of impact pitching.

Tournament history: Italy, participants in all six editions of the WBC, made it beyond pool play for the first time in 2023.

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First game: March 7 vs. Brazil, 1 p.m. ET (12 p.m. local)

Key player: Aaron Nola is easily the most accomplished MLB pitcher to ever take the mound for Italy in the World Baseball Classic. It’ll be interesting to see if he starts against Team USA or if the Italians opt to use him against Mexico, considering the Mexicans are Italy’s likeliest competitor for a trip to the knockout stage.

Guy you don’t know yet but should: Andrew Fischer was taken by the Brewers with the 20th overall pick last summer out of the University of Tennessee. Fischer was born in Brick, New Jersey, a fitting origin story considering this guy is built like a wall. At the plate, he’s as demonstrative as they come, shuffling, head-shaking and gesturing like an Italian-American Juan Soto. And when he does swing, Fischer deploys a wild, uppercut hack that is as fun as it is violent.

Biggest strength: Raw juice. Between Fischer, Vinnie Pasquantino, Jac Caglianone, Dominic Canzone and Jakob Marsee, the Italians will almost always be a swing away from putting runs on the board. This is one of a surprisingly small number of WBC lineups expected to start nine big leaguers. That’s not nothing.

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Biggest weakness: Luck of the draw. The Italians find themselves in the proverbial group of death, alongside Team USA and Mexico. Besides that, this is a very balanced roster with a much-upgraded bullpen compared to the 2023 vintage.

Tournament outlook: In 2023, the Italians were sent to Taiwan for pool play. That helped them emerge from a very even group, but it also made it much harder to convince Italian-American big leaguers to fly across the world to participate. That task was simpler this go-around, as evidenced by the plethora of MLBers on this roster. As such, expectations are high for this group. Besting Mexico for the second ticket to the quarterfinals won’t be easy, but Italy raised the bar last time. This team has the talent to reach the semifinals.

Tournament history: Mexico’s third-place finish in 2023 was its best-ever WBC result. This team has appeared in every tournament.

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First game: March 6 vs. Great Britain, 1 p.m. ET (12 p.m. local)

Key players: Randy Arozarena dominated the 2023 WBC with both bat and charisma. The Cuban-born Mexican citizen finished that tourney 9-for-20 with six doubles and a homer to go alongside a string of stellar defensive plays. Mexico needs him to get hot again. And Toronto catcher Alejandro Kirk didn’t play in 2023, which makes his inclusion this time a potential difference-maker.

Guy you don’t know yet but should: Alexander Armenta is the only pitcher on this roster without any professional stateside experience, but the 21-year-old is no schlub. The 5-foot-9 southpaw signed with the NPB Softbank Hawks as an 18-year-old back in 2022 and has slowly matriculated up the Japanese minor-league system. He sits 93 mph with real deception and a pair of breakers.

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Biggest strengths: Defense and relief pitching. Defensively, the Mexicans are loaded up the middle of the diamond, with Kirk behind the dish, Joey Ortiz at short and Alek Thomas in center. And this bullpen unleashes more cheese than a cotija farm. Andres Muñoz, Viktor Vodnik and Alex Carillo all sit 98. Robert Garcia and Brennan Bernardino are capable late-inning lefties.

Biggest weakness: Starting pitching. Taijuan Walker, José Urquidy, Javier Assad and Taj Bradley are all Big Leaguers™, sure. But that quartet is dangerously lacking in the raw sauce necessary to quiet cacophonous lineups like the ones USA and Italy have.

Tournament outlook: It’ll be difficult to come back late against Mexico, which features one of the best bullpens in the entire tournament. But this starting staff is weak enough that opposing teams might be able to jump to early leads. While Mexico upset Team USA in 2023 and very well could do so again, its whole tournament likely comes down to the game against Italy on March 11. The winner of that one almost certainly makes it out of the group stage. For a Mexican team coming off a rousing semifinal appearance, that would be the bare minimum.

Tournament history: Team USA has generally underwhelmed on the national stage when defending the so-called “American Pastime.” Despite having access to around 70% of active MLB players in any given year, the Stars and Stripes have won this tournament just once, in 2017, and appeared in the final only one additional time, in 2023.

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First game: March 6 vs. Brazil, 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. local)

Key players: For all the hoopla about how much better USA’s starting rotation is compared to 2023, the real reason Japan won it all last time is because most of the American position players didn’t hit. Team USA managed just three extra-base hits in the final, two of which were solo homers. Mike Trout went 1-for-4. Mookie Betts grounded into a crucial double play in the ninth. It was only one game, but you know, it was only one game. This year, an entire new crop of stars takes center stage. Instead of Trout, Betts and Arenado, it’s Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr., Cal Raleigh and Bryce Harper. Kyle Schwarber and Will Smith are the only regulars back from three years ago. To return to the mountaintop, the American squad needs its special players to do special things.

Guy you don’t know yet but should: Garrett Cleavinger is probably the most anonymous guy on this star-studded roster, but let’s focus on Mets phenom Nolan McLean. The former Oklahoma State Cowboy made just eight starts down the stretch for a depressing, doomed 2025 Mets club, but they were eight sensationally dominant starts. The runaway favorite to win NL Rookie of the Year in 2026, McLean certainly has the right temperament to shine on the international stage.

Biggest strength: Star power, duh. Thirteen of the 22 non-relievers on Team USA’s roster were All-Stars last season. And that doesn’t include dudes such as Gunnar Henderson, Bryce Harper, Roman Anthony, Mason Miller and Nolan McLean.

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Biggest weakness: Probably the bullpen. This is admittedly a strange way to do this, but only three of the top 11 MLB relievers by fWAR last year were American. That’s Garrett Whitlock, David Bednar and Mason Miller, all of whom are on this roster. This is still probably the best and deepest group of relievers in the tournament, but I was asked for a weakness. What do you want me to do?

Tournament outlook: On paper, this is the most talented team in WBC history. But the only things won on paper are crosswords and hangman. Much has been made of the news that two-time defending Cy Young Tarik Skubal will start only one WBC game, likely against Great Britain. But even if Skubal were to denounce his citizenship and move to Belarus in the next few weeks, Team USA would still have the best rotation in the tournament. Still, this is baseball, the most volatile of all sports. The Americans could easily lose once again, but the odds are very much in their favor.