2017 World Baseball Classic qualification

In their respective brackets, both Australia and Mexico were top seed (signified by home-field advantage) as well as the team that had competed in the 2013 tournament.

Although Brazil had a few young Major League players, Israel was the team most likely to be adversely affected by this circumstance.

Israel's roster included eight former Major Leaguers: catcher Ryan Lavarnway, infielders Ike Davis, Cody Decker, Nate Freiman and Josh Satin, and pitchers Josh Zeid, Jason Marquis and Craig Breslow.

[5] On the other hand, infielder Ty Kelly, one of Israel's twenty minor leaguers, had to withdraw from the qualifier after he was called up to the New York Mets.

Four stadiums were used during the qualifying round:[2] Note: Numbers in parentheses indicate positions in the WBSC World Rankings at the time of the tournament.

South Africa defeated New Zealand in the opening round and again in the losers' bracket to reach the final game, but lost to Australia 12–5.

The Czech Republic performed surprisingly well, giving close games to both Mexico and Nicaragua and defeating Germany by a wide margin.

In the opening round, hosts Panama defeated France while 2013 participant Spain fell to Colombia.

Panama eliminated France to gain a rematch against Colombia, which won the final game 2–1.

Great Britain eliminated Brazil to gain a rematch against Israel, which won the final game 9–1.