Taipei, Aug. 25 (CNA) Most of the coaches picked for Taiwan's 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) team were part of the coaching staff that guided Taiwan to victory in the Premier12 tournament in 2024, manager Tseng Hao-jiu (曾豪駒) said Monday.
Tseng revealed on Monday the list of coaches selected during a meeting of Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taipei, and said they will almost all be familiar faces.
Among them are Kao Chih-kang (高志綱), named as the bench coach, Wang Chien-ming (王建民) and Lin Yueh-ping (林岳平), named as pitching coaches, and Peng Cheng-min (彭政閔) and Kao Kuo-hui (高國輝), named as hitting coaches, Tseng said.
All of them expressed their willingness to work for the national team again and bring home the best results, said Tseng, who was also the manager of the Premier12 title team.
An 80-man list of players, who all play professionally at home or abroad, was also confirmed at Monday's meeting, Tseng said, adding that he will closely monitor their performances before starting to contact them in December about joining the team for the 2026 WBC.
The WBC tournament was first held in 2006 and was the first international tournament to feature the top professional players from around the world.
Having finished last due to tiebreakers in a five-team pool in which all five teams finished 2-2 in the 2023 WBC, Taiwan had to qualify to make it into the 2026 WBC.
It barely made it, defeating Spain 6-3 in a final elimination game in February 2025 to qualify.
It will play its first game on March 5, 2026, against Australia at Tokyo Dome in Japan.
It will join Australia, South Korea and Czechia in Pool C of the tournament along with three-time champion and defending champion Japan.
Only the top two teams in round-robin play in the pool will advance to the tournament's quarterfinals in the United States.
