Canada’s World Baseball Classic odds: Group C provides difficult test

It’s been a long time coming for Team Canada, but pretty soon the red and white will be back on the field in the World Baseball Classic.

The latest: Canada went winless in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, which is the last time this event took place. In a pool headlined by a loaded Team USA, Canada could have difficulty faring any better this time around.

Here are Canada’s World Baseball Classic odds for the tournament taking place from March 7-23.

Canada's World Baseball Classic odds

Market	Odds
Canada to win Pool C	+1,800
Canada to win the tournament	+10,000

Odds as of 1:30 p.m. on 03/08/2023.

There are far deeper rosters within Pool C and the tournament at large, but Canada still has some solid star power at the top.

Freddie Freeman, the 2020 NL MVP, headlines the hitters, alongside two-time Gold Glove winner Tyler O’Neill. Both players will be looking to improve on their 2017 WBC efforts, when they combined to hit just 3-for-22 (.136).

On the mound, Cal Quantrill and Matt Brash figure to be the best of the bunch. Brash had a bumpy start to his rookie campaign in Seattle’s rotation, but he posted a 2.35 ERA as a reliever in the second half of the season.

Canada's Pool C odds

The World Baseball Classic has expanded from 16 teams to 20 for this year’s tournament, which is great for baseball fans. It’s not so great for Team Canada, though.

As usual, eight teams will qualify from the group stage. So now, instead of half of each pool advancing, only two of five teams per pool will move on.

Canada has +1,800 odds to win the group, which is an awfully tall task for a team that didn’t win a game in the previous WBC. Going up against Team USA (-400 to win Pool C, +250 to win the tournament) poses the greatest challenge, but Mexico is not to be overlooked either.

Mexico (+400 to win Pool C) is littered with MLB players such as Silver Slugger Alejandro Kirk, reigning NL ERA leader Julio Urias and Alex Verdugo. According to the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) rankings, Mexico has the No. 5 team in the world.

USA ranks No. 3, Colombia is No. 11 and Canada is No. 14.

Canada's odds to win

Winning Pool C would likely require a small miracle for Canada, but that’d be nothing compared to winning the whole darn thing.

More than half of the tournament field has odds of 100-to-1 or longer, and Canada (+10,000) is part of that crowd. It makes sense when you consider they’re heavy underdogs just to get out of their group.

Historic WBC data doesn’t tell us much, but Team Canada hasn’t advanced past the group stage in any of the four previous tournaments. Unfortunately for them, a lot of countries play ball really, really well.

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