Shohei Ohtani will not pitch in World Baseball Classic, Roberts says

Los Angeles– shohei ohtani Samurai will not pitch for Japan in the upcoming World Baseball Classic, los angeles dodgers Manager Dave Roberts said it was Ohtani’s decision. Ohtani will still serve as the designated hitter for his home country.

Asked whether the team would support him if he also decided to pitch, Roberts said: “Absolutely.”

Ohtani made two starts for Japan in the 2023 WBC, then famously came out of the bullpen to end the championship in the ninth inning of the finals. Another tear surfaced in his ulnar collateral ligament at the end of the following season, prompting Ohtani to spend all of 2024 – his first year with the Dodgers – as a full-time DH.

Ohtani, 31, made an orderly return to pitching at the end of the 2025 season, but was completely out of action as a starter by October and missed four starts in the playoffs. In his last, he recorded the first seven outs in Game 7 of the World Series despite being on only three days’ rest. Roberts said he was “not surprised” Ohtani ultimately decided not to pitch in the international tournament, which takes place in mid-March.

“Understanding what he did last year, what he had to go through and then how to better prepare himself for ’26 — it seems like the right decision,” Roberts said during the team’s annual fan event on Saturday. “So, I’m not surprised – and feeling really good with it.”

Speaking moments earlier, Ohtani was reluctant about pitching in the WBC, saying he would have to “see how my body feels, feel the progress and see what happens.” Ohtani part of star-studded rotation at 2023 WBC yu darvish, shota imanaga and current teammates yoshinobu yamamoto And roki sasaki. Of that group, only Yamamoto — who compiled 211 innings in 2025, including 2⅔ innings on zero days’ rest in World Series Game 7 — will return to pitch.

Sasaki told the team’s flagship radio station, AM 570, that the Dodgers asked him not to pitch in this year’s tournament, which was likely a byproduct of his uneven rookie season.

The 2026 season will see Ohtani return as a full-time two-way player, which has not happened in three years. Roberts said the team would not impose a strict innings limit on him and expected him to be a solid starter by the time the regular season began, but the Dodgers would work with a hybrid six-man rotation and provide Ohtani with extra days off between starts as often as possible.

“It’s been a great offseason,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “It’s mostly business as usual. I think the good thing is I haven’t had any injuries or had any injuries this year, so the offseason will be mostly normal.”