{"id":403974,"date":"2025-11-25T16:31:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T16:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/403974\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T16:31:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T16:31:25","slug":"shohei-ohtani-will-play-for-japan-in-2026-world-baseball-classic-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/403974\/","title":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani will play for Japan in 2026 World Baseball Classic \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Shohei Ohtani plans to play for Japan in next year&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/news\/sports\/mlb\/2026-world-baseball-classic-pools-dates-hosts-details\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">World Baseball Classic<\/a>, the two-way <a href=\"http:\/\/nbclosangeles.com\/tag\/los-angeles-dodgers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> star announced on social media Monday night.<\/p>\n<p>Ohtani helped Japan win the 2023 WBC, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/news\/sports\/this-stat-makes-shohei-ohtanis-wbc-strikeout-of-mike-trout-even-more-epic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">striking out then-Los Angeles Angels teammate Mike Trout for the final out of the championship game against the United States<\/a>. He was named MVP of the tournament.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 18px;font-family: 'Arthouse', sans-serif;font-weight: 700;color: #333;margin: 0px 0px 10px 0px;line-height: 1.2em\">Stream Los Angeles News for free, 24\/7, wherever you are.<\/p>\n<p> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/watch\/\" rel=\"noopener\" data-lid=\"New FAST autoblock design test NBC LA\" data-lpos=\"automatic block\"> <img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0;height: 12px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/cta-eye-icon-white.png\" alt=\"Watch button\" height=\"12\"\/>\u00a0 WATCH HERE<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Ohtani\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/news\/sports\/mlb\/dodgers-shohei-ohtani-mvp-mlb\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">won his fourth MVP award<\/a>\u00a0this month, shortly after he helped the Dodgers win their second straight <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/tag\/world-series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">World Series<\/a> title. He returned to the mound this season after not pitching in 2024 while recovering from Tommy John surgery.<\/p>\n<p>In the postseason, he had arguably the best game in major league history,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/news\/sports\/brewers-dodgers-nlcs-game-four-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">striking out 10 batters and hitting three homers<\/a>\u00a0as the Dodgers completed a four-game NL Championship Series sweep of Milwaukee.<\/p>\n<p>Ohtani did not specify in his post whether he plans to pitch for Japan in the WBC, which begins on March 5.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a data-lpos=\"inline-recirc-module\" data-lid=\"Who&#039;s won the most MVPs in MLB history? Where Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani now rank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/news\/sports\/mlb\/mlb-players-won-most-mvp-awards\/3566681\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"post__image\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/getty-usa-aaron-judge-shohei-ohtani.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a data-lpos=\"inline-recirc-module\" data-lid=\"MLB\" class=\"post__tag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/tag\/mlb\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MLB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNov 13\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a data-lpos=\"inline-recirc-module\" data-lid=\"Who&#039;s won the most MVPs in MLB history? Where Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani now rank\" class=\"post__title--link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/news\/sports\/mlb\/mlb-players-won-most-mvp-awards\/3566681\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWho&#8217;s won the most MVPs in MLB history? Where Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani now rank\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a data-lpos=\"inline-recirc-module\" data-lid=\"Shohei Ohtani&#039;s legendary three-homer, 10-strikeout game sends Dodgers back to the World Series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/news\/sports\/brewers-dodgers-nlcs-game-four-2\/3793090\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"post__image\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Ohtani-pitch-homer.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a data-lpos=\"inline-recirc-module\" data-lid=\"MLB\" class=\"post__tag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/tag\/mlb\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MLB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOct 17\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a data-lpos=\"inline-recirc-module\" data-lid=\"Shohei Ohtani&#039;s legendary three-homer, 10-strikeout game sends Dodgers back to the World Series\" class=\"post__title--link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbclosangeles.com\/news\/sports\/brewers-dodgers-nlcs-game-four-2\/3793090\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShohei Ohtani&#8217;s legendary three-homer, 10-strikeout game sends Dodgers back to the World Series\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani plans to play for Japan in next year&#8217;s World Baseball Classic, the two-way Los Angeles Dodgers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":403975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,2502,5337,1266,4712,182121],"class_list":{"0":"post-403974","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-shohei-ohtani","16":"tag-world-baseball-classic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115611296570319027","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}