World Baseball Classic: Who are the past champions?

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The 2026 World Baseball Classic will be the sixth edition of the international tournament.

The tournament features professional players from leagues throughout the world, most notably - but not exclusive to - Major League Baseball and the Nippon Professional Baseball league in Japan.

Japan is not only the most recent World Baseball Classic champion (2023), but has won the most WBC tournaments (three). The Dominican Republic and United States each have won the World Baseball Classic once.

Here is a tournament-by-tournament look at the previous World Baseball Classic winners:

2006: Japan​

• Championship game: Japan 10, Cuba 6
• Location: Petco Park, San Diego
• Third-place finisher: South Korea
• Fourth-place finisher: Dominican Republic
• MVP: Daisuke Matsuzaka, Japan

2009: Japan​

• Championship game: Japan 5, South Korea 3 (10 innings)
• Location: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
• Third-place finisher: Venezuela
• Fourth-place finisher: United States
• MVP: Daisuke Matsuzaka, Japan

2013: Dominican Republic​

• Championship game: Dominican Republic 3, Puerto Rico 0
• Location: AT&T Park, San Francisco
• Third-place finisher: Japan
• Fourth-place finisher: Netherlands
• MVP: Robinson Canó, Dominican Republic

2017: United States​

• Championship game:United States 8, Puerto Rico 0
• Location: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
• Third-place finisher: Japan
• Fourth-place finisher: Netherlands
• MVP: Marcus Stroman, United States

2023: Japan​

• Championship game:Japan 3, United States 2
• Location: LoanDepot Park, Miami
• Third-place finisher: Mexico
• Fourth-place finisher: Cuba
• MVP: Shohei Ohtani, Japan

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: World Baseball Classic: Every champion since 2006

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