Taiwan national baseball team manager Tseng Hao-jiu on Tuesday announced the updated roster for next month’s 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) qualifiers at the Taipei Dome.
The team previously confirmed that Chen Chieh-hsien, captain of Taiwan’s World Baseball Softball Confederation Premier12 championship team last year, would be returning.
On Tuesday, Tseng said that after a management meeting, they made minor adjustments to the roster.
Photo: CNA
Of the 19 pitchers on the list, 10 are based in Taiwan, while nine play abroad, he said, adding that the roster includes seven infielders and four outfielders, some of whom also play overseas.
Tseng also added another catcher, bringing the total number of catchers to four.
The roster is still subject to change, depending on the response from players and coaches, and the willingness of overseas teams to release players, he said.
The manager added that training for the qualifiers would start on Feb. 3 and that overseas players would gradually return to Taiwan to join practices.
Before the qualifiers, the national team would hold six or seven exhibition games, two of which would be open to the public, Tseng said.
Qualifiers for the 2026 World Baseball Classic start on Feb. 21 at the Taipei Dome with Pool A teams South Africa playing Nicaragua in the afternoon followed by Taiwan versus Spain in the evening. After six games in a round-robin format, the first-placed team would advance to the World Baseball Classic, while the second and third-placed teams would vie for a spot in a seventh game, to be held on Feb. 25.
In Tucson, Arizona, Pool B teams start their games on March 2, with China playing Germany and Brazil playing Colombia, with the final game to be held on March 6.
The group stage of the World Baseball Classic runs from March 6 to 11, with four pools of five teams each, including the yet-to-be-decided qualifiers.
Pool A (Puerto Rico, Cuba, Canada and Panama) are to play in San Juan, Puerto Rico, while Houston, Texas, would host Pool B (the US, Mexico, Italy and the UK).
Pool C (Japan, Australia, South Korea and the Czech Republic) are to play in Tokyo, and Pool D (Venezuela, Dominican Republic, the Netherlands and Israel) start in Miami, Florida.
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
The NHL postponed the Los Angeles Kings’ home game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday with several massive wildfires burning across the greater Los Angeles area. The Kings and Flames were scheduled to play on Wednesday night at the Kings’ downtown arena. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers were scheduled to host the Charlotte Hornets in the same arena last night. “Our hearts are with our entire Los Angeles community,” the Kings said in a statement. “We appreciate the hard working first responders who are diligently working to contain the fire and protect our community. We appreciate the league’s support in keeping our
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
TWO IN A WEEK: Despite an undefeated start to the year playing alongside Jiang Xinyu of China, Wu Fang-hsien is to play the Australian Open with a Russian partner Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien yesterday triumphed at the Hobart International, winning the women’s doubles title at the US$275,094 outdoor hard-court tournament, while McCartney Kessler lifted the trophy in the women’s singles. Fourth-ranked Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu of China took 1 hour, 15 minutes to defeat Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, their second title in a week. Wu and Jiang on Sunday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, beating Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US. Their winning ways continued in Australia as they stretched
RSS