Shohei Ohtani, Yu Darvish Headline Japan Roster for World Baseball Classic

The Japanese National Team, led by Shohei Ohtani, Yu Darvish and Seiya Suzuki, is hoping to win its third World Baseball Classic in 2023. Here's a look at Japan's roster for the WBC, as of January 19.

The Japanese National team's roster for the 2023 World Baseball Classic is looking very strong.

The club will be led by Major Leaguers Shohei Ohtani, Seiya Suzuki, Yu Darvish, Lars Nootbaar and Masataka Yoshida.

Led by Ichiro Suzuki, Japan won the first ever World Baseball Classic in 2006. The Japanese then won the next WBC in 2009, and placed third in the 2013 and 2017 events.

This spring, Japan hopes to win its first World Baseball Classic title in 14 years.

Shawn Spradling has been rounding up the rosters for each country's national team for the 2023 event. Wednesday morning, he tweeted out Japan's preliminary roster.

Here's a look at Japan's entire preliminary roster, as of Jan. 19:

Starting Lineup

C Yuhei Nakamura

1B Hotaka Yamakawa

2B Shugo Maki

3B Munetaka Murakami

LF Masataka Yoshida

CF Lars Nootbaar

RF Seiya Suzuki

DH Shohei Ohtani

Pitching Rotation

Shohei Ohtani

Yu Darvish

Yoshinobu Yamamoto

Roku Sasaki

Bullpen

Atsuki Yuasa

Hiromi Itoh

Hiroto Takahashi

Hiroya Miyagi

Keiji Takahashi

Ryoji Kuribayashi

Shosei Togo

Shota Imanagra

Taisei Ota

Yuki Matsui

Yuki Udagawa

Bench

Takumi Ohshiro

Takuya Kai

Kazuma Okamoto

Takumu Nakano

Tetsuto Yamada

Kensuke Kondoh

Ukyo Shuto

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