The 2026 baseball season will start a little earlier next year for those interested in the World Baseball Classic, which starts March 5, 2026.
Team Japan won the gold medal in the previous Classic in 2023, and with another loaded roster, they will look to repeat three years later.
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Joining Team Japan in their quest to win their fourth WBC title will be Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter/starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani.
Ohtani announced that he would be participating in the WBC yet again in an Instagram post Monday night.
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“Thank you to all the fans for another great season. I’ll train hard and look forward to seeing you all next year,” Ohtani wrote on Instagram. “Happy to play and represent Japan again.”
Ohtani provided one of the most memorable moments from last WBC, striking out his then-teammate Mike Trout for the final out in the championship game, giving Team Japan the win over Team USA. Ohtani won tournament MVP honors with a .435 batting average and a 1.86 ERA.
While Ohtani will participate to some degree in the WBC, whether he pitches or not remains a question. The Dodgers would likely advocate against the four-time MVP stepping back onto the mound, as they would prefer his arm being as fresh as possible before they begin their title defense.
“We’ll support them,” Roberts told the Japanese media during a promotional tour in Japan last week of Ohtani, Roki Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto potentially playing in the WBC. “But I do think that the pitching, it’s a lot on the body, the arm. The rest will be beneficial for next year, for our season. But we understand how important the WBC is for these individual players and for the country of Japan.”
Similarly, the roles Yamamoto and Sasaki will play are unknown, if the two are on the roster at all. The Dodgers could choose to block Sasaki’s participation as a whole, because he spent significant time last year on the injured list, reports Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times.
The team isn’t eligible to restrict Yamamoto’s participation, but might ask the 2025 World Series MVP to be conservative in his usage during the tournament.
The WBC premieres March 5, 2026, just three weeks before the Dodgers open the season on March 26.
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AloJapan.com