Roki Sasaki Clarifies Process Behind World Baseball Classic Decision

Oct 27, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki (11) reacts in the eighth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays during game three of the 2025 MLB World Series at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

LOS ANGELES — When all 20 team rosters for the 2026 World Baseball Classic are announced, the Los Angeles Dodgers will have two representatives on Team Japan and five overall participants.

As was widely expected, Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are both joining Samurai Japan this year as they look to defend their gold medal from the 2023 WBC. Roki Sasaki was their teammate in the tournament as well, but he's not playing in 2026.

That is going to allow the young right-hander to spend the entirety of Spring Training with Dodgers coaches as he looks to bounce back from an inconsistent rookie season.

"The end results were good, but I realized there were a lot of things I have to work on," Sasaki said through interpreter Will Ireton when asked about his 2025 season. "So I felt like I was able to work on those through the offseason."

Sasaki went 1-1 with a 4.72 ERA, 6.19 FIP and 1.49 WHIP through eight starts before going on the 15-day injured list. He was later transferred to teh 60-day IL and did not get activated until the final week of the regular season.

That amounted to Sasaki returning in an audition for the Dodgers' bullpen, and he wound up taking hold of the role in what was a pivotal development for their World Series run.

Why Roki Sasaki won't pitch in WBC

Sasaki not joining Team Japan had long appeared to be the likely outcome considering the significant amount of time he missed last year because of a right shoulder impingement.

A lengthy stay on the injured list amounted to the Dodgers having the autonomy to block Sasaki's participation in this year's WBC.

“I didn’t have a conversation, per se, with the team. It was really up to the team," Sasakai said. "It was really the team that decided. But for me, my mentality is, it’s going to be a lot of competition to earn the spot in the rotation, so that’s my mindset going into Spring Training.”

Earlier in the offseason, manager Dave Roberts said the Dodgers organization would support Ohtani, Yamamoto and Sasaki if they joined Team Japan for the WBC. Though, Roberts also acknowledged that inherently would raise some level of concern with the extra pitching.

That seemingly has been mitigated as Sasaki won't participate and Ohtani decided to only fill a designated hitter role in the WBC.