{"id":499066,"date":"2026-01-31T18:09:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T22:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/shohei-ohtani-will-not-pitch-in-the-world-baseball-classic-and-prioritizes-being-ready-for-the-regular-season\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T18:09:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T22:09:56","slug":"shohei-ohtani-will-not-pitch-in-the-world-baseball-classic-and-prioritizes-being-ready-for-the-regular-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/sports\/baseball\/shohei-ohtani-will-not-pitch-in-the-world-baseball-classic-and-prioritizes-being-ready-for-the-regular-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani will not pitch in the World Baseball Classic and prioritizes being ready for the regular season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>LOS ANGELES. \u2013<\/strong> The stellar Japanese player <strong>Shohei Ohtani<\/strong> will participate in the <strong>2026 World Baseball Classic<\/strong>, but <strong>he will not do so as a pitcher<\/strong>, as confirmed this Saturday by the manager of the <strong>Los Angeles Dodgers<\/strong>, <strong>Dave Roberts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>You may be interested in<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ab.deultimominuto.net\/deportes\/beisbol\/ketel-marte-confirma-su-regreso-al-roster-dominicano-para-el-clasico-mundial\/#google_vignette\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">: Ketel Marte confirms his return to the Dominican roster for the World Baseball Classic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\nThe decision is part of the player&#8217;s recovery plan, who underwent a <strong>second surgery on his right elbow in 2023<\/strong> and seeks to arrive in optimal condition at the start of the Major League regular season.\n\nOhtani returned to the mound last June and showed a solid performance, recording <strong>an ERA of 2.87 in 47 innings<\/strong>, with <strong>62 strikeouts and only nine walks<\/strong>. In addition, he debuted as a pitcher in the postseason, where he went <strong>2-1<\/strong>, with <strong>an ERA of 4.43<\/strong> and <strong>28 strikeouts in four starts<\/strong>.\n\nAlthough he won&#8217;t be on the mound during the Classic, Ohtani is expected to have an impact <strong>exclusively as a hitter<\/strong>, a role in which he is confident he will contribute decisively to the Japanese team in defending their title.\n\nThe player left an indelible mark on the <strong>2023<\/strong> edition, when he secured the championship for Japan by striking out <strong>Mike Trout<\/strong> in the last at-bat of the final game.\n\nAccording to the technical body, Ohtani is confident he will be fully able to pitch once the <strong>MLB regular season<\/strong> begins, prioritizing his long-term health.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES. \u2013 The stellar Japanese player Shohei Ohtani will participate in the 2026 World Baseball Classic, but he will not do so as a pitcher, as confirmed this Saturday by the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Dave Roberts. You may be interested in: Ketel Marte confirms his return to the Dominican roster for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":972,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[35481],"tags":[611,40231,19740,41186,41582],"class_list":["post-499066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-baseball","tag-deultimominuto","tag-dominican-republic","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-theperiodicodelatruth","tag-world-classic"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-25Ps","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","dum_api":{"author_name":"Yamell Rossi","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/cropped-7a176880-76f8-4b0c-9527-4e34feef45e4-96x96.jpg","categories_name":["Baseball"],"featured_media_url":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/972"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499066\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}