Two years ago , Shohei Ohtani stood on the mound in the 2023 World Baseball Classic finals against Team USA. He pitched, hit a home run, and struck out Mike Trout to seal Japan’s championship. With the WBC scheduled for March 2026, Japan planned to defend their title with Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto , who just helped deliver a World Series championship. But the Dodgers are pushing back, and Japan’s roster suddenly looks uncertain.

The Dodgers’ concerns stem from what happened this past season. Ohtani played through a complete season for the first time in years, including all seven games of the Fall Classic. Meanwhile, Yamamoto carried a heavy workload through the same championship run. Their offseason is now more than a month shorter than it was before the 2023 WBC.

For Ohtani, who

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