Thought baseball season was over? Did you watch the Dodgers parade through Los Angeles, champagne bubbling along the way and think you had to get through a baseball-free winter? Then, you¡¯re in luck: There¡¯s no such thing as a baseball offseason. Not when there's winter leagues around the globe: LIDOM games are available to stream to MLB.TV subscribers, the ABL season is about to get underway and later this winter we¡¯ll have the Caribbean Series -- featuring Samurai Japan taking part for the very first time.

Starting this weekend in Mexico, though, we have the Premier12 tournament featuring the 12 greatest national teams in the world facing off. Here¡¯s everything you need to know before the tournament:

What is the Premier12?

The Premier12 is arguably the biggest and most important international baseball tournament behind the World Baseball Classic and the Olympics. The tournament features the top 12 men¡¯s national baseball teams as determined by WBSC¡¯s ranking system at the end of 2023. Teams earn points throughout the year in adult and junior tournaments like the U-23 World Cup, which Japan recently won by beating Puerto Rico earlier this fall.

Many developing baseball nations like the Czech Republic and Great Britain have pointed to reaching the Premier12 as a sign that they have reached the upper echelon of the sport. Good news is coming for those nations, which narrowly missed out on making the tournament this year: The next edition will expand to 16 teams.

Who has won?

This is third time the Premier12 is taking place, postponed from 2023 due to the pandemic. South Korea defeated the United States in the first tournament in 2015, with Japan unseating Korea's attempt for a repeat in a tight 5-3 victory in 2019.

With the finals taking place in Tokyo, many are expecting host nation and current No. 1 ranked nation of Japan to be a major force once again.

Who will be playing in the tournament?

The 12 nations taking part are broken into two group stages: Group A will be held in Tepic and Guadalajara, Mexico, from Saturday to Thursday. Group B will play the opening game in Nagoya, Japan, before playing the rest of the group stage games in Taipei City.

Then, the top four teams -- two from each group -- will head to Tokyo to play three games in a round-robin Super Round. The top two teams will then advance for the winner-take-all final on Nov. 24.

Here are the groups:

GROUP A

Mexico (Current WBSC Rank No. 2, tied with Chinese Taipei)
Netherlands (7)
Panama (10)
Puerto Rico (8)
USA (5)
Venezuela (4)

GROUP B

Australia (15)
Cuba (9)
Dominican Republic (12)
Japan (1)
Korea (6)
Chinese Taipei (2, tied with Mexico)

How do I watch the Premier12?

The tournament will be streaming on DAZN in the United States.

Will MLB players be in the tournament?

Unlike the World Baseball Classic, players on Major League 40-man rosters are ineligible to play. However, Minor League players and free agents can play, so expect plenty of prospects, including No. 1 overall Draft pick Travis Bazzana lining up for the Australian national team for the very first time and four Top 100 Prospects fitting into Team USA¡¯s lineup. Yo¨¢n Moncada will also be joining the Cuban team as he is now a free agent.

If you¡¯re not someone who closely follows Japan¡¯s NPB or Korea¡¯s KBO baseball leagues, then expect to meet some of the world¡¯s best players -- some of whom could be come to the Major Leagues in future years. Shohei Ohtani had a breakout 2015 Premier12 tournament, pitching 13 shutout innings while striking out 21 batters. Soon after the tournament concluded, Premier12 MVP Award winner Hyun Soo Kim signed with the Orioles, and teammate ByungHo Park joined the Twins. Kenta Maeda joined the Dodgers another month later.

In the 2019 tournament, Seiya Suzuki, Jung Hoo Lee and Brent Rooker were just some of the current MLB stars who made an impact.

Why should I care?

Remember how exciting the World Baseball Classic was, when Ohtani struck out Mike Trout in the ninth inning to win gold? Or when Japan came from behind to defeat Mexico to reach those finals thanks to a walk-off two-run double or how the USA came back to beat Venezuela with a Trea Turner grand slam? How about when the Japanese fans joined Australian captain Tim Kennelly's daughter in chanting "Let's go, daddy!"

As every player, including stars like Trout have said, there¡¯s something special about international competition, about playing for your country and wearing its name across your chest.

Then there are the storylines: Can anyone beat Japan? The nation won the World Baseball Classic in 2023, the Women's Baseball World Cup this summer and it took gold at the U-23 World Cup earlier this fall.

Could Mexico or Chinese Taipei, tied for the No. 2 rank in the world, stage an upset and win gold? Or can the USA, who were runners-up in 2015, find its way to the top of the medal stand?

After disappointing with a third-place finish at the 2023 European Baseball Championship, the Netherlands lost its Olympic A-status. They need a good finish at this tournament to earn its spot back and for the players' stipends to be returned.

Who should I keep an eye on?

There's plenty of players worth watching. I recently wrote about my top eight here. Some of the top players in the tournament include the aforementioned Bazzana making his senior national team debut with Australia, 21-year-old breakout Korean star Do-yeong Kim, the youngest player to record a 30/30 season in the KBO and MLB Pipeline's No. 4 overall prospect Carson Williams.

It's not just young prospects, either, though: Rich Hill, at 44 years old, has joined Team USA for the first time in his career, while Darrell Thompson -- who pitched in Triple-A for the Brewers this past year -- impressed enough as a training camp arm that he was added to the roster. Mexico's roster is loaded with players with big league talent, including slugger Chris Carter, who has been bashing in the Mexican League since joining in 2019, and pitchers Victor Gonz¨¢lez and Humberto Castellanos, who both appeared in the Majors in 2024.