The World Baseball Classic starts Wednesday and runs through the championship on March 17 in Miami. We’ve already done power rankings for the event, so now let’s grab some bets.
Lines are courtesy of DraftKings.
Pool A winner: Canada +330
Pool teams: Puerto Rico, Cuba, Canada, Panama, Colombia
The favorite in this pool is Puerto Rico at -125, but I actually like Canada’s roster better at this point. Puerto Rico lost several players it expected to have and is diminished with the best position players being Nolan Arenado, Heliot Ramos and then maybe Eddie Rosario or MJ Melendez. Canada has both Naylor brothers, Tyler O’Neill, Otto Lopez and Owen Caissie. IF there’s a dark horse here, it’s Colombia, but baseball in that country just isn’t there just yet.
Pool B winner: No play
Pool teams: USA, Mexico, Italy, Great Britain, Brazil
USA is the overwhelming favorite here at -800 and I’m not betting that. I think USA wins this, but I’m staying away. There’s justification in going with Mexico at +600 if you’re looking for an upset. It’s entirely plausible that Mexico could win the pool with USA also advancing.
But USA is the most talented and well-rounded team in the field with Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal atop the rotation, Aaron Judge, Cal Raleigh, Kyle Schwarber and Bobby Witt Jr. in the lineup and Mason Miller anchoring the bullpen.
Pool C winner: No play
Pool teams: Japan, Korea, Chinese Taipei, Australia, Czechia
Japan is at -575 and I can’t see anyone else winning the pool. We’ll stay away. Korea is always a decent competitor and Chinese Taipei can be formidable, but the team with Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto takes this thing.
Pool D winner: Dominican Republic -155
Pool teams: Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Netherlands, Israel, Nicaragua
I think the odds are in a place where it makes sense to play DR here. If you can find a prop for most runs scored in the pool round, grab the Dominican Republic. The Dominican offense is just so ridiculous with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr., Julio Rodríguez, Junior Caminero, Ketel Marte, Manny Machado and Geraldo Perdomo.
Venezuela at +150 could also take this thing behind Ronald Acuña Jr., Salvador Perez, Jackson Chourio, Eugenio Suárez and the Contreras brothers.
if you wanted to run with a shocker, Netherlands has some players — Xander Bogaerts, Ozzie Albies, Ceddanne Rafaela, Kenley Janson — and is +1300.
Champion: USA -110
I know it’s the favorite, but I’m not going to stray from USA. We — yes, I can say “we” here! — are going to win this thing. Even without Skubal after his first start, the rotation still has Skenes and Logan Webb at the top while Nolan McLean and Matthew Boyd aren’t exactly slouches. The offense starts with Judge, Raleigh, Schwarber and Witt, but the roster is so loaded that Gunnar Henderson, Roman Anthony and Will Smith are backups. Brice Turang (.288 average, .369 OBP, 18 home runs, 24 steals) and Pete Crow-Armstrong (37 doubles, four triples, 31 homers, 35 steals) look like the eighth and ninth hitters in the batting order.
If you want longer odds or just not a chalk pick, Dominican Republic at +450 and Venezuela is +900 and, of course, a lot of people will like the defending champs, Japan at +330. For a longshot, Canada is pretty darn good and that +5000 number might be calling your name.
I’m riding with USA, though, and -110 is a perfectly fine number to play.
Parlay: “Stars, Stripes & Skenes” +520
There are a bunch of fun parlays and this one really caught my eye. It’s a two-leg parlay with USA winning the WBC and Paul Skenes winning the NL Cy Young in 2026. As noted, I think USA is going to win the WBC and I just took that bet at -110. Skenes won the 2025 NL Cy Young in his second MLB season. He had a 1.97 ERA in 32 starts and worked 187 ⅔ innings. The Pirates were a bad team but his 10-10 record did nothing to dissuade voters. The Pirates will be better this season and Skenes can likely top 200 innings now with the training wheels completely gone from his workload. The other two top-shelf aces in baseball are in the American League (Tarik Skubal and Garrett Crochet). Skenes is the favorite in the NL right now at +225 with Yoshinobu Yamamoto second at +500 (the Dodgers will most certainly limit his regular-season innings, too).
I know that my dad always likes to say that “if it looks too good to be true, it probably is,” but, man, this sure looks tasty, right? At +520, I’m all over it.
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