Report: WBC expected to be postponed until 2023
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The 2021 World Baseball Classic, originally set to be played next March, is expected to be delayed until spring training in 2023, report Joel Sherman and Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. The plan is pending approval from the tournament's board of directors.
"(The tournament) is not a priority right now," a source told ESPN's Enrique Rojas.
Because the WBC is a joint operation between MLB and the players' association, it is included in the league's collective bargaining agreement. The current CBA expires in December 2021, so it will need to be renegotiated before MLB players can play in the WBC again, Rojas reports.
The 2021 WBC was set to be the fifth edition of the international tournament. Marlins Park in Miami would have hosted the championship rounds next March, in addition to Pool D and quarterfinal games. Phoenix's Chase Field was scheduled to host Pool C games. Pools A and B, along with the other quarterfinal round, were to be held in Taichung, Taiwan, as well as Tokyo.
Twelve nations - Australia, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Italy, Israel, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, South Korea, the United States, and Venezuela - automatically qualified for the 2021 WBC. Qualifying tournaments to fill the main tournament's final four spots had been scheduled for this past March until the pandemic forced their cancellation.
The United States won the most recent edition of the WBC in 2017.
While a WBC in 2021 is unlikely, international baseball will be reintroduced as an Olympic sport next summer at the rescheduled 2020 Tokyo Games.