The Los Angeles Dodgers are currently preparing to defend their World Series title from a year ago when the MLB regular season gets underway in late March. Before that, the World Baseball Classic will take place earlier in the month, and multiple Dodgers players will be participating in the festivities, including superstar Shohei Ohtani.
Now, more information is coming to light about the Dodgers' plans for both Ohtani and pitching star Yoshinobu Yamamoto in spring training in preparation for the event.
“First full squad day at Dodgers camp: Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto will face hitters today. Ohtani is unlikely to pitch in Cactus League games before leaving for the WBC, Dave Roberts said, but Yamamoto likely will,” reported Katie Woo of The Athletic on X, formerly Twitter.
Overall, it seems that the Dodgers are taking a rather cautious approach with two of their best players before the WBC, which is understandable considering that they don't want to strain them too much in advance of the 162-game MLB season.
Yamamoto became a household name in the MLB last year with his performance during the World Series, locking down the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 6 on the road before heroically returning to the lineup the following day to pitch some relief for Los Angeles in Game 7, helping them cement their second straight World Series championship, which they will attempt to defend this year.
Meanwhile, Ohtani had a rather quiet playoffs by his historically great standards, but he did produce one of the greatest individual performances of all time in both the pitching and hitting departments in Game 4 of the NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers.
In any case, Ohtani and Yamamoto are sure to produce plenty of fireworks at both the upcoming World Baseball Classic and the MLB regular season shortly thereafter.
