Power ranking 2021 Olympic baseball teams

1. Japan

The host nation for the 2021 Olympic games is also the favorite in baseball, making it no mystery as to why they wanted to include the event as part of this year’s festivities. Japan is the highest-ranked international baseball team in the world coming into the Olympics and has been backing that up whenever they’ve taken the diamond as of late.

While Japan would surely love to have Shohei Ohtani on the roster, they aren’t exactly hurting for bats or arms at this point. In the case of the latter, long-time Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka will be relied upon heavily but they also have a blend of young and veteran pitchers from the Nippon Professional Baseball league, the second-best league in the world, who can back up Tanaka.

One of the biggest breakout stars of the 2021 Olympic games, though, could be Tetsuto Yamada, one of the best all-around bats and gloves in the NPB, who could likely field some MLB offers this offseason. The same is likely true of Seiya Suzuki, who has been a dominant force in Japan despite being just 26 years old.

Based on their talent advantage, home-field advantage and the depth of the roster at every level, Japan are the clear favorites to walk away with the gold medal. And entering the tournament as hosts, it’s safe to say there’s pressure for this team in that anything less than gold will be considered a failure.