US Media: "Korea Crazy About Baseball Can Do Even Better"

There was a U.S. report evaluating Korean baseball, which has been eliminated in the first round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) for three consecutive times, as "capable of doing better."

The Athletic, a U.S. sports-focused online media outlet, published an analytical article on its website on the 25th (Korean time) classifying the 16 countries that automatically qualify for the 2026 WBC finals into seven tiers.

The 16 countries that finished in the top four of the four groups in this year's WBC, including Japan, which won its third overall championship, and Korea, will automatically participate in the 6th WBC held three years later.

The Athletic assigned Korea and Canada to the third tier of "solid but underperforming" countries.

WBC National Team
Photo by Hyunmin Kim

The outlet first pointed out that compared to its rival and neighboring country Japan, Korea has fewer cases of players transferring from the KBO League to Major League Baseball (MLB) and fewer transferred players becoming MLB stars.

It also added that only two MLB players participating in this tournament were Korean-Americans: Tommy Hyunsoo Edman (St. Louis Cardinals) and Kim Ha-seong (San Diego Padres).

The Athletic mentioned that Korea was eliminated in the first round of the WBC for the third consecutive time after losing to Australia, adding a painful point from the perspective of Korean baseball observers.

Those who closely watch Korean baseball believe that the player development methods lag far behind those of MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball, The Athletic pointed out.

Nevertheless, the outlet encouraged by saying, "Korea is a country crazy about baseball, and the Korean national team can do much better."

The countries ranked first by The Athletic are Japan, the country with the most WBC championships, and the United States, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela, all filled with MLB stars, making them strong contenders for the championship.

Puerto Rico and Mexico were evaluated as second-tier countries that could contend for the championship.

Including Korea and Canada in the third tier, the eight countries in tiers one to three became the top eight candidates for the next tournament.

The Athletic also rated the Netherlands and Australia as "successful but declining countries."

The Netherlands, which reached the semifinals consecutively in the 2013 and 2017 WBCs, suffered a first-round defeat this year. Australia, which defeated Korea, lost to Cuba in the quarterfinals.

The Athletic cited that the so-called golden generation of Dutch baseball, consisting of big leaguers from Cura?ao and Aruba, is now heading into their mid-to-late 30s.

It also noted that the number of talented Australian players signing with MLB teams is only one-tenth of Panama's on an annual basis, and that the Australian professional league cannot compete in popularity or scale with the KBO League or Nippon Professional Baseball, predicting that Australian baseball will decline unless it produces stars.