Winter Baseball Options for the Fans Who Can’t Get Enough
Though baseball is thought of as the Summer Game, it doesn’t go into hibernation in the winter. In fact, there is a variety of competitive professional winter leagues, particularly in the Caribbean and Latin America, for the rabid fan to follow.
The winter leagues help fill the gap in the calendar when the four largest professional leagues – Major League Baseball (MLB), Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), and Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) – aren’t playing.
The biggest event on the Winter League calendar is the Caribbean Series, or Serie del Caribe. The champion teams from various Caribbean leagues participate. Although the invited countries vary from year to year, the core group has long been Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. The Caribbean Series features a single round-robin round in which each team faces each other once. The four teams with the best records advance to the semi-finals (1st vs. 4th and 2nd vs. 3rd), and the two winners play in the final to decide the tournament champion.
In the just-completed 2026 tournament, defending champion Leones del Escogido (D.R.), Tomateros de Culican (Mexico), Cangrejeros de Santurce (Puerto Rico), and Charros de Jalisco (Mexico) were the four semifinalists. In the final, the Charros rallied from a 9-1 deficit after four innings to defeat the Tomateros 12-11 in 10 innings. The Charros’ two winning runs in the bottom of the 10th both came on wild pitches.
Dominican Republic
The most prominent winter league is the six-team Liga Dominicana (LIDOM) in the Dominican Republic, which had 100 players on MLB rosters at the beginning of the 2025 season – the most of any country other than the United States. Currently in its 71st season, the league is considered the best of the winter leagues.
Photo: Carter Cromwell
The league is dominated by two clubs who are fierce rivals: the Tigres del Licey from Santo Domingo and the Águilas Cibaeñas from Santiago. Licey (as they are most commonly known) has won 24 league titles and 11 Caribbean Series championships, while the Águilas have won the league championship 22 times and the Caribbean Series six times.
The just-completed 2025 LIDOM regular season ran from October 15 until December 23, and each team played 50 games. Games were streamed live – subscription required – on MLB.com.
Following the regular season, the top four teams – Aguilas Cibaenas, Leones Escogido, Toros del Este, and Gigantes del Cibao – played in an 18-game round robin throughout the month of January. In the best-of-seven championship series, Leones del Escogido then defeated Toros del Este in five games to secure its 18th LIDOM title. This victory marked Escogido’s second consecutive championship.
Venezuela
The Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (LVPB) is another high-level league. Founded in 1946, it currently operates with eight clubs, and its teams have captured nine Caribbean Series championships. Each team plays 56 regular-season games, with the last of the 2025 season scheduled for December 27. One can view games (subscription required) via BeisbolPlay (beisbolplay.com).
The Leones del Caracas club has been the most successful, having won 21 championships, the most recent in the 2022-23 season. The team has twice won the Caribbean Series. Tiburones de La Guaira, managed by former MLB player and manager Ozzie Guillen, won the Caribbean Series in 2024.
Navegantes del Magallanes won the 2025–26 title by defeating the Caribes de Anzoátegui in six games to secure the club’s 14th championship.
This year’s Caribbean Series was originally scheduled to be played in Venezuela but was moved to Guadalajara in mid-December due to political turmoil in Venezuela. Venezuela then opted to instead hold its own regional tournament, dubbed the Serie de las Américas. Venezuela won the championship by defeating Colombia in the final. The tournament included Navegantes del Magallanes, Nicaraguan champion Leones de Leon, Colombian champion Caimanes de Barranquilla, the Willemstad Cannons from Curacao, the Aguilas Metropolitanas from Panama, DAOM de Buenos Aires from Argentina, and the Cuban national team.
Puerto Rico
The Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League is colloquially known as the Puerto Rican Winter League. Founded in 1938, it also has six clubs competing. Each plays 40 games, and the regular season ends in late December. Puerto Rican clubs have won the Caribbean Series 16 times, most recently when Criollos de Caguas won back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018.
The Cangrejeros de Santurce won the 2025-26 championship, defeating the Ponce Leones in six games. This victory marked the 17th title for the Santurce franchise, but its first since the 2019-20 season.
There is a new league in Puerto Rico called the Puerto Rico Independent Baseball League, which bills itself as a “short-season professional development league” that serves as a “direct bridge between emerging Puerto Rican talent and opportunities in professional baseball worldwide.”
Cuba
There is also, of course, the Cuban National Series that operates in the winter months. Unlike the other leagues, which allow a capped number of foreigners to participate on each team, only Cubans participate in this league.
The most recent regular season started on September 2, 2025, and concluded on December 17, 2025. Playoffs began on January 4th, 2026, and Matanzas defeated Las Tunas in the final to win the championship.
Nicaragua
The Nicaraguan Professional Baseball League began play in 1956 but rebranded itself prior to the 2025-26 campaign as Asociación Profesional de Béisbol Nicaragüense. The league consists of six teams with a 32-game regular season schedule that ran from November 4 through December 20 in 2025.
The Leones de León won the 2025-26 league championship, defeating the Gigantes de Rivas 4–3 in a dramatic seven-game series. This victory marked its second consecutive title and tenth overall league championship, with a 1-0 win in Game Seven.
Photo: Getty Images/New York Times
Mexico
The Mexican Pacific League, founded in 1945, is based in the northwestern part of Mexico and has 10 teams, including one representing Tucson, Arizona. Naranjeros de Hermosillo has won 17 championships, and Tomateros de Culiacán has won 13 times.
However, the Charros de Jalisco are the 2025-26 Mexican Pacific League (LMP) champions, winning their second straight title by sweeping the Tomateros de Culiacán in the final series.
Colombia
The Colombian Professional Baseball League, the current iteration of professional baseball in Colombia originated in 1994. The league has four clubs.
The Caimanes de Barranquilla won this year’s championship, their 15th overall. They defeated the Cartagena Tigres in five games to secure their third consecutive championship.
Panama
There is a history of winter baseball in Panama, as well as gaps in which there was no league. It has been in its present form as the Panamanian Professional Baseball League, or ProBeis, since 2011. It has four clubs.
However, the 2025-26 season was canceled because of financial concerns. Panama sent the Águilas Metropolitanas, its 2024-25 league champion, to the 2025 Serie de las Americas tournament in Venezuela.
The 2019 Caribbean Series was moved to Panama due to political unrest in Venezuela. A Panamanian team was added to the tournament, and the Toros de Herrera then went on to win the championship. It was only the second time that a team from Panama had won the event, the other time being in 1950.
Australia
In a completely different region of the world is the Australian Baseball League (ABL), which is down to four teams after the Melbourne Aces and Canberra Cavalry pulled out. Team rosters include prospects from NPB, KBO and MLB organizations. Its regular season began November 13 and extends to January 18.
The Adelaide Giants won the 2025–26 championship by defeating the Sydney Blue Sox in a best-of-three series to claim their third Claxton Shield in four years. This victory marked their second consecutive title,
Asia
In addition to the above, there is a wide variety of lesser-known organizations that are effectively developmental leagues. There are so-called state leagues in each of the six Australian states, for example. The Japan Winter League, held on Okinawa, operates from mid-November to mid-December, is scouted by NPB, KBO, and MLB clubs, and a number of players there get contracts in the Japan independent leagues.
There is also the Asia Winter Baseball League in Taiwan, which has five teams. Two teams include CPBL prospects; two are comprised of NPB prospects; and one has KBO prospects. The league has been called “an essential part of the Asian baseball ecosystem.” Players such as Munetaka Murakami – who just signed a contract with the Chicago White Sox – and Kazuma Okamoto, who signed with the Toronto Blue Jays, have played in the league.