Elliott: Close but no cigars for Canada at LA Olympics, Premier12 berths

Former Ontario Blue Jays C Bo Naylor (Mississauga, Ont.) tags out a runner in a WBC win over Panama. Photo: Baseball Canada

March 22, 2026

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

The glow of watching Canada compete for five games in the World Baseball Classic is over.

A football friend of mine who didn’t miss a pitch compared watching Canada play in the WBC to seeing the Michigan Wolverines and Ohio State Buckeyes play in person at the Horseshoe in Columbus on a bright sunny fall day after the leaves have turned.

Now?

Well, my friend compared it to a friend taking him to watching a football game between the Brown Bears and the Cornell Big Red in Ithaca, NY -- in heavy gusts of wind in the midst of a torrential downpour.

Canada was that close to going undefeated in pool play, as it emerged on top.

Canada was that close to beating Team USA: a wild throw led to an unearned run, three times pitchers failed to cover first and in the bottom of the seventh, down two, had runners at second and third down with none out. The meat or the order went meekly without a hit.

And now players are back in their respective camps. Had it been a normal team it would have been on a back field doing PFP drills.

And the news for Canada this week is not as good as WBC week ...

Canada will not play in the Olympics in July 2028 in Los Angeles, although it came close.

Canada will not play in the Premier12 in 2027 or compete in one of the two four-team qualiifers for the Premier12 (second to only the WBC in stature), although it came close.

Canada still had a chance after losing to USA. It needed Japan to score three runs and beat Venezuela. No an uneasy ask since Japan was the defending champs.

Japan scored more than three and was winning 5-4 heading into the sixth against Venezuela in the quarter-finals. Venezuela’s Wilyer Abreu then hit a three-run homer off Hiromi Itoh — reigning winner of the Sawamura Award, Japan’s version of the Cy Young— to give his club a 7-5 lead. Venezuela added another for an 8-5 win to eliminate the defending champs.

It was a game which saw former MVPs Ronald Acuña and Shohei Ohtani homer for their respective teams.

So, no LA, which is nothing like the 68-team March Madness. There will only be six countries in LA, unlike Athens in 2004 or Bejing in 2008. Both were eight-team events,

And using my Kingston math, 12 teams in the Premier12 and eight more to qualify, 20th-ranked Canada should be OK for a spot. Except. The 24th ranked Spain offered to host. See ya.

OF Tyler O’Neill (Maple Ridge, BC) is sandwiched between Owen Caissie (Burlington, Ont.) and Denzel Clarke (Pickering, Ont.) after advancing. Photo: Baseball Canada

The four qualifiers for the Zhongshan pool in China are No. 15 ranked Czechia, No. 16. Nicaragua, No. 19 Great Britain and host No. 17 China.

Meanwhile in Barcelona, No. 13 Colombia, No. 14 Italy, No. 18 Germany and host Spain will compete for spots next fall.

Now, had Spain been ranked higher -- rankings are based on 12U play, 15U, 22U, World Junior and WBC — Canada would have been granted the final spot.

There is no way you can convince a Canadian pro that Czechia, Nicaragua, Colombia, Great Britain or Germany are better than Canada. China and Spain deserve spots as hosts.

Already qualified for 2027: Australia. Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Team USA and Venezuela.

We have no doubts the rankings will be vastly different at the end of December if the talk of Canada fielding a 15U team soon are true. While we also head that there is that Ottawa dirty phrase “a decrease in funding for baseball” going around, Canada helped itself.

Each country receives $750,000 US for entering the WBC, plus Canada earned a bonus of $750,000 for winning its pool and $1 million for making the quarter final. That’s $2.5 million in total to be split 50-50 between the governing body (Baseball Canada) and its players -- if our numbers are correct. So $1.25 million to be split among 28 players and the same for Baseball Canada.

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Scouting advantage: In this year’s WBC, Canada benefited from the contribution of three scouts: Walt Burrows (Brentwood Bay, BC) of the Blue Jays, Christian Conforti (Oshawa, Ont.) of the Blue Jays and Chris Kemlo (Oshawa, Ont.) of the San Deigo Padres.

Burrows, Canada’s senior scout did his regular role evaluating Canada’s future opponents. Kemlo scouted Cuba when it was in Arizona, while Canada was playing pre-WBC games in Florida and then Team USA. Conforti did game prep, matchups and defensive positioning.