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    Is Israel competing in World Baseball Classic 2026? All you need to know about the high security

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    Team Israel is preparing for its third World Baseball Classic appearance this year. They will participate in the competition set to be held across Miami, Florida; Houston, Texas; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Tokyo, Japan.

    However, Israel will have increased security for the tournament as they will be accompanied by four Major League Baseball security agents to the venues, compared to two agents for other teams.

    Israeli national team manager Nate Fish talked about the heightened security measures for their WBC campaign in a conversation with JNS in February.

    “This is just stuff that other teams do not have to deal with,” Fish said. “But it’s stuff that we’re used to dealing with. You understand this is what you’re signing up for, but we have to deal with a lot of security concerns that no other teams deal with. Bomb-sniffing dogs have to board the buses before we do.

    “We travel with a lot of security. We can’t wear anything that has Israel on our bags even when we travel. When we went to the Olympics, we had to put our logos on the insides of our bags so we could travel.”

    Israel appeared in the WBC for the first time in 2017 and attracted attention after reaching the second round of the tournament. They also had a dramatic win against Nicaragua in 2023.

    Team Israel manager laid out World Baseball Classic expectations in 2026

    The 2026 WBC has 20 teams divided into four pools. Team Israel has been grouped in Pool D with the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

    While Israel is ranked 12th among the 20 teams participating in the tournament, manager Nate Fish is expecting to reach the second round.

    “We’re going in expecting to find our way out of the first round and into the second round. It’s not like an impossible dream,” Fish said. “We’ve made it through the first round before. We made it to the Olympics and we won a silver medal in the European Championships. So there’s a tradition of going on improbable winning streaks for this team.”

    Israel will play their first game against Venezuela on Mar 7. They have MLB pedigree on their roster with San Francisco Giants outfielder Harrison Bader, Baltimore Orioles pitcher Dean Kremer, CJ Stubbs of the Philadelphia Phillies and Spencer Horwitz of the Pittsburgh Pirates.