LOS ANGELES: Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani won\u2019t pitch for Japan in the World Baseball Classic in March, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Saturday.<\/p>\n
Roberts said it was Ohtani\u2019s decision to focus solely on being the designated hitter for his native country.<\/p>\n
He said the team \u201cabsolutely\u201d would have supported Ohtani if he had wanted to also pitch. Ohtani\u2019s teammate and World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto will pitch for Japan in the WBC despite his heavy workload with the Dodgers last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cYoshi feels he wants to take it on and feels good, and we support him,\u201d Roberts said at the team\u2019s fan fest.<\/p>\n
Ohtani made two starts for Japan in the 2023 WBC and then came out of the bullpen in the ninth inning to clinch the championship by striking out then-Los Angeles Angels teammate Mike Trout for the final out against the United States.<\/p>\n
Ohtani tore his ulnar collateral ligament in August that year and later underwent elbow surgery, which kept him from pitching during his first season with the Dodgers in 2024, when he was their full-time designated hitter.<\/p>\n
He gradually returned to pitching last year and made four postseason starts during the Dodgers\u2019 run to their second straight World Series championship.<\/p>\n
Ohtani didn\u2019t confirm his decision not to pitch in the WBC when speaking with reporters before Roberts. The four-time MVP said through a translator that he had to \u201csee how my body feels, feel the progression and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old Ohtani said he\u2019s had a normal offseason because he hasn\u2019t been rehabbing from injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very healthy,\u201d he said. \u201cGlad that I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roberts said he won\u2019t manage Ohtani any differently now that he\u2019s going to pitch a full season. He said there will be ample rest days in between starts and Ohtani won\u2019t be scheduled for any more two or three-inning starts.<\/p>\n
Ohtani, Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki were teammates on Japan\u2019s WBC title team in 2023. But Sasaki won\u2019t be pitching this time, coming off a rookie season filled with ups and downs that ended with him pitching out of the bullpen for the Dodgers.<\/p>\n
The WBC runs from March 5-17.<\/p>\n
Roberts is pondering his starting lineup ahead of the team reporting for spring training in Arizona on Feb. 13.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do feel great about having Shohei lead off. I do feel great about having Will (Smith) in the 5 (spot) and then after that, I\u2019m going to kind of read and react,\u201d he said. \u201cYou certainly see Mookie (Betts) in the 3 (spot).\u201d<\/p>\n
AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES: Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani won\u2019t pitch for Japan in the World Baseball Classic in March, Los…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-158879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}