Japan’s Best World Baseball Classic Lineup: Reigning Champs Can Run It Back

Team USA is bringing its best roster, the Dominican Republic is once again oozing with talent and Venezuela’s lineup can contend with anyone, but until proven otherwise, Japan still sits on the throne as the kings of international competition. Japan has dominated the World Baseball Classic unlike any other country, winning the tournament in three of its five editions, and the group again looks fully capable of defending its standing. In 2023, Japan stormed back in the late innings to triumph over Mexico in a semifinal walk-off win before holding off Team USA in the finals when WBC MVP Shohei Ohtani struck out Mike Trout in an epic at-bat to take back the title. Ohtani won’t have the chance to do that again in 2026, as he’ll only be hitting this time around. That’s a tough blow to a Samurai Japan pitching staff that will be without four of the five pitchers who started games in the 2023 WBC, but they’ll still have Yoshinobu Yamamoto as their ace fresh off earning World Series MVP honors, plus two more MLB starters in Yusei Kikuchi and Tomoyuki Sagano and reigning Sawamura Award winner Hiromi Itoh. Any questions about the rotation are mitigated by the depth of a lineup that bullied the competition while going undefeated in 2023. Ohtani will once again spearhead a Japan offense that outscored its pool-play opponents by 30 runs in the last WBC and finished the tournament with the highest OPS of any team that made it out of the knockout round. Now, Seiya Suzuki will be joining the group coming off a 32-homer season with the Cubs after missing the 2023 competition due to injury. He’ll be among five MLB position players on the roster, a group that includes Ohtani, Masataka Yoshida and incoming NPB standouts Munetaka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto. Manager Hirokazu Ibata will have plenty of lineup iterations to choose from — there’s so much established NPB talent in place that it might be hard to find regular at-bats for Teruaki Sato, who hit 40 home runs last year while being named Central League MVP — but here’s one option that could maximize Japan’s offensive capabilities as it attempts to defend its crown: Lineup So, how would that look defensively? Outfield: LF: Masataka YoshidaCF: Seiya Suzuki RF: Kensuke Kondo The safer move would be putting Shota Morishito in center flanked by Yoshida in left and Suzuki in right, but there have already been rumblings leading into the competition of Japan potentially using Suzuki in center. While that carries some disaster potential defensively (especially with Yoshida in left), it would also be the most powerful offensive configuration and allow Team Japan to keep the bats of both Yoshida and Kondo in the lineup. Yoshida hit .409 with a team-high 13 RBI in the 2023 tournament, while Kondo hit .346 with a 1.115 OPS. Kondo has had an OPS over .900 in each of his last three seasons in NPB. Infield: 1B: Munetaka Murakami 2B: Shugo Maki SS: Kaito Kozono 3B: Kazuma Okamoto C: Seishiro Sakamoto DH: Shohei Ohtani MLB fans have more of a reason to watch Japan with a closer eye now that Murakami will be joining the White Sox and Okamoto will be playing for the Blue Jays in 2026. Murakami famously hit 56 home runs as a 22-year-old in 2022 and averaged more than 30 home runs per season over his eight-year NPB career. Okamoto also brings power — he hit at least 30 home runs every season from 2018-23 with the Yomiuri Giants — with less of a strikeout risk, coming off a 2025 NPB campaign in which he slashed .327/.416/.598 with as many walks as strikeouts. Kozono won the Central League batting title last season, hitting .309 in a career year with the Hiroshima Carp. Maki played on the 2023 tournament team and has recorded an OPS of at least .800 in each of his five NPB seasons. At catcher, expect Yamamoto’s former Orix Buffaloes teammate Kenya Wakatsuki to be behind the plate when he starts. Otherwise, Sakamoto might get the majority of the time coming off his best offensive season in years. That’s all before getting to Ohtani, who needs little explanation coming off back-to-back 50-homer seasons with the Dodgers and a dominant showing in the last WBC. Rotation RHP Yoshinobu YamamotoLHP Yusei KikuchiRHP Hiromi Itoh RHP Tomoyuki Sugano Yamamoto struck out 12 batters in 7.1 innings in the 2023 tournament and demonstrated his ability to rise to the biggest occasions during the 2025 MLB playoffs. He threw complete games in Game 2 of the NLCS and Game 2 of the World Series, and after earning the win in Game 6 of the Fall Classic to keep the Dodgers’ season alive, he emerged in relief one day later to seal a championship in relief. Unfortunately for Japan, he can’t start every game of the WBC. Instead, he’ll be the ace of a pitching staff that isn’t quite as daunting as the 2023 group. Kikuchi was an All-Star for the Angels in 2025 and had an ERA a tick under 4.00 but surrendered more hits than any pitcher in the American League. Sugano registered a 4.64 ERA for the Orioles and surrendered an American League-leading 33 home runs. There’s still plenty of talented arms behind that trio, however, including reigning Sawamura Award winner Hiromi Itoh, who made three scoreless relief outings in the 2023 tournament. Also worth keeping an eye on: New Astros pitcher Tatsuya Imai, who’s coming off a career year in NPB, is not on the initial roster but is part of the designated pitcher pool and could be added in later rounds if (when) Japan advances. Bullpen RHP Shoma Fujihira RHP Koki KitayamaLHP Yuki Matsui RHP Yuki Matsumoto LHP Hiroya MiyagiRHP Taisei OtaLHP Ryuhei SotaniLHP Chihiro SumidaRHP Hiroto TakahashiRHP Atsuki Taneichi Many of Japan’s relief arms are actually standout starters in NPB and can provide length if needed. Kitayama ranked third in ERA (1.63) and Taneichi ranked fifth in strikeouts (161 in 160.2 innings) among qualified NPB pitchers last year. Takahashi, Sumida and Miyagi, a holdover from the 2023 championship team who ranked third in NPB in strikeout rate last year, all threw at least 150-plus innings with a sub-3.00 ERA last season. Ota made four scoreless relief outings for Japan in the last WBC. Matsui is the lone MLB pitcher of the group, but his status is in question as he deals with a groin injury.