Dave Roberts can breathe a little easier-at least for now-after it was revealed that Shohei Ohtani will not pitch when he plays for Japan in the World Baseball Classic.
TheLos Angeles Dodgers manager confirmed this himself during DodgerFest last Saturday.
“I wasn’t surprised. I can’t even say I was relieved,” Roberts said. “Understanding what he did last year, what he had to go through to then how best to prepare himself for ’26 to do both-it just seemed like the right decision.”
Previously, Roberts had not hidden his concern about the roles both Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto would have in this WBC edition, but this time he emphasized that the decision was entirely Ohtani’s own, and the team would have fully supported him either way-even if he had chosen to participate as a two-way player.
Japan, in their bid to defend the 2023 World Baseball Classic title, will have Shohei Ohtani as their designated hitter, while he also plans to take another step forward in his 2026 season with the Dodgers.
Will Ohtani be a full-time two-way player?
In reality, it all depends on how the player feels. He returned to pitching for the first time last season after a long recovery from elbow surgery in September 2023, which kept him off the mound until June 2025.
Roberts commented that Ohtani’s innings total will increase in 2026, though the team will take precautions. Ohtani finished fourth in the American League Cy Young voting in 2022, but with the Dodgers he has won back-to-back National League MVP awards and two World Series titles.
Read the full article here
