![\"yamamoto-japan-wbc-getty.png\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/yamamoto-japan-wbc-getty.png\")
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Getty Images<\/p>\n
All but one spot on the 30-man roster for Team Japan has been released ahead of the 2026 World Baseball Classic. The defending champions are loaded again. Dodgers<\/a> teammates\u00a0Shohei Ohtani<\/a>\u00a0(a four-time MVP in Major League Baseball) and\u00a0Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a>\u00a0(the 2025 World Series MVP) headline the roster. Ohtani confirmed his participation in November, but Yamamoto was not added to the roster until this week.<\/p>\n “I’ve trained during the offseason to get myself in condition to compete at the WBC,” Yamamoto said in a statement released by Japan (The Japan Times<\/a>). “Together with my fantastic teammates and our reliable staff, we will aim to be No. 1.”<\/p>\n In the regular season Yamamoto was 12-8 with a 2.49 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and 201 strikeouts in 173 \u2154 before a stellar postseason that saw him pitch to a 1.45 ERA in 37 \u2153 innings, a run that included two complete games.\u00a0<\/p>\n “He is Japan’s top pitcher, there is no doubt about that,” manager Hirokazu Ibata said (The Japan Times<\/a>). “As Japan’s ace, I can rely on him to give us a chance to win wherever he pitches.”<\/p>\n Expect Ohtani to be the designated hitter, though his pitching role has yet to be determined, per Ibata. As a reminder, Ohtani got the save in the finals last WBC, striking out then-teammate Mike Trout<\/a> to preserve Japan’s 3-2 win over USA.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yamamoto and Ohtani aren’t the only names on the roster<\/a> that will be familiar to MLB<\/a> fans. They are joined by Seiya Suzuki<\/a> (Cubs<\/a>), Yusei Kikuchi<\/a> (Angels<\/a>), Munetaka Murakami<\/a> (White Sox<\/a>), Kazuma Okamoto<\/a> (Blue Jays<\/a>), Yuki Matsui<\/a> (Padres<\/a>) and Tomoyuki Sugano<\/a> (Orioles<\/a> last year, now a free agent).\u00a0<\/p>\n Pool play for the 2026 World Baseball Classic begins on March 5. The knockout stage starts March 13 in Houston and Miami with the semifinals in Miami on March 15-16 and the finals March 17 in Miami’s LoanDepot Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n The United States has a star-studded roster of its own<\/a> and is the favorite to win the 2026 WBC title. Team USA (+105) has better odds than Japan (+320) and the Dominican Republic (+380), per FanDuel<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images All but one spot on the 30-man roster for Team Japan has been released ahead of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[3966,49,48,508,3961,180738,180739,180734,180736,180737,133041,3962,487,4011,462,101356,477,1508,482,82,28242,507,148306,180740,180735,1507,180741,164323],"class_list":["post-434852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-is-ohtani-playing-in-wbc","tag-is-yamamoto-pitching-in-wbc","tag-japan-wbc-roster","tag-japan-world-baseball-classic-roster","tag-japan-world-baseball-classic-team","tag-kazuma-okamoto","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mike-trout","tag-mlb","tag-munetaka-murakami","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-seiya-suzuki","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-sports","tag-tomoyuki-sugano","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-world-baseball-classic","tag-yamamoto-japan","tag-yamamoto-wbc","tag-yoshinobu-yamamoto","tag-yuki-matsui","tag-yusei-kikuchi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}