With 12 days until the 2026 World Baseball Classic opens in Tokyo on March 5, the exhibition calendar took a brief pause Friday. Cuba and Nicaragua, who played to a 2–2 tie in their opening exhibition at Estadio Roberto Clemente in Masaya on Wednesday, have an off day before resuming their four-game Serie Internacional de Béisbol on Sunday, February 22 at Estadio Rigoberto López Pérez in León. In that first game, Cuban starter Raymond Figueredo went 3⅔ innings, while reliever Yunieski García — part of Cuba’s designated player pool — kept Nicaragua’s bats quiet through the middle innings. Cuba’s roster for the Nicaragua series is mostly made up of players outside the 30-man WBC squad, with NPB stars Liván Moinelo and Raidel Martínez slated to join later. Meanwhile in Asia, South Korea fell 4–3 to the Samsung Lions in a seven-inning exhibition in Okinawa, while Australia continued their camp in Fuchū, Tokyo against industrial league teams.
WBC AMERICAS POOLS Pool A (San Juan): Puerto Rico, Cuba, Canada, Panama, Colombia. Pool B (Houston): USA, Mexico, Brazil, Italy, Great Britain. Pool D (Miami): Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Israel, Netherlands. Pool C (Tokyo): Japan, Chinese Taipei, South Korea, Czech Republic, Australia. Spring training exhibition games vs MLB teams begin March 2–4 in Florida and Arizona.
