{"id":523855,"date":"2026-01-16T18:07:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T18:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/523855\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T18:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T18:07:18","slug":"samurai-japan-reveals-11-more-players-for-2026-world-baseball-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/523855\/","title":{"rendered":"Samurai Japan Reveals 11 More Players for 2026 World Baseball Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Samurai Japan manager\u00a0Hirokazu Ibata<\/a> officially unveiled 11 more players for the 2026 World Baseball Classic on Friday.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s skipper maned right-handed pitchers Tomoyuki Sugano<\/a>\u00a0(Free Agent) and\u00a0Yuki Matsumoto<\/a>\u00a0(Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks), catchers\u00a0Seishiro Sakamoto<\/a>\u00a0(Hanshin Tigers) and\u00a0Kenya Wakatsuki<\/a>\u00a0(Orix Buffaloes), infielders\u00a0Shugo Maki<\/a>\u00a0(Yokohama\u00a0DeNA\u00a0BayStars),\u00a0Teruaki Sato<\/a>\u00a0(Hanshin Tigers), and\u00a0Sosuke Genda<\/a>\u00a0(Saitama Seibu Lions), outfielders\u00a0Shota Morishita<\/a>\u00a0(Hanshin Tigers),\u00a0Ukyo Shuto<\/a>\u00a0(Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks), and\u00a0Kensuke Kondoh<\/a>\u00a0(Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks), along with utilityman\u00a0Taisei Makihara<\/a> (Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks) to the roster on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maki, Genda, Shuto,\u00a0Kondoh, and Makihara are all returnees from the 2023 WBC team. With\u00a0eight players already announced in December<\/a>, Japan has now filled 19 of its 30 roster spots.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sugano is coming off his MLB debut season with the Baltimore Orioles, where he made 30 starts and posted a 4.64 ERA. The former Yomiuri Giants ace enters the tournament as a free agent and the oldest player on the roster at 36. Matsumoto, 29, was a big part of SoftBank\u2019s championship-winning bullpen last year \u2013 alongside\u00a0Kazuki Sugiyama<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Kouya Fujii<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and dominated with a 1.07 ERA and 29.8% strikeout rate across 51 appearances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Behind the plate, Sakamoto, 32, and Wakatsuki, 30, represent a changing of the guard after Japan leaned on\u00a0Takuya Kai<\/a>,\u00a0Yuhei Nakamura<\/a>, and\u00a0Takumi Ohshiro<\/a>\u00a0in the 2023 WBC. Sakamoto enjoyed a career year in 2025, posting a .357 on-base percentage and being named the SIS Fielding Bible Award winner at catcher. Wakatsuki was among the most productive offensive backstops in Nippon Professional Baseball with a 112 OPS+.\u00a0Shogo Sakakura<\/a>\u00a0handled the primary catching duties at the 2024 Premier12 and was named to the All-World Team. He\u00a0remains\u00a0a strong candidate to be added as a third catcher, with\u00a0Yuudai Yamamoto<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Yukinori Kishida<\/a>\u00a0also prime options.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maki, Sato, Morishita, and\u00a0Kondoh\u00a0are NPB superstars and were essentially\u00a0locks\u00a0to make the roster. Maki, 27, owns a career .854 OPS across five seasons and will be penciled in as Japan\u2019s starting second baseman. Sato, 26, captured the 2025 Central League MVP after setting a career high with 40 home runs and 186 OPS+ across 139 games, leading NPB with 7.0 WAR.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sato\u2019s teammate Morishita, 25, is a rising star in his own right, finishing second among qualifiers behind Sato with a 153 OPS+ while clubbing 23 home runs.\u00a0Kondoh, meanwhile, is\u00a0arguably the\u00a0best all-around player in the world not on an MLB team, as the 32-year-old has\u00a0maintained\u00a0an on-base percentage above .400 in 10 of his last 11 seasons. He earned Pacific League MVP honors in 2024\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kondoh\u2019s\u00a0teammates Shuto, 29, and Makihara, 33, played key roles off the bench as defense and speed specialists for the Samurai in 2023, most memorably when Shuto pinch-ran for\u00a0Masataka Yoshida<\/a>\u00a0in the ninth inning of the semifinal against Mexico and dashed home to score the game-winning run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps the\u00a0most surprising call-up is the 32-year-old Genda, who started at shortstop in 2023 and\u00a0remains\u00a0one of NPB\u2019s premier fielders, but is on the decline and endured the worst offensive season of his career in 2025. He was also involved in an off-field scandal following the 2024 Premier12 that damaged his reputation. Whether he is viewed as a primary starter once again or more of a defensive-oriented experienced backup\u00a0remains\u00a0unclear, but the\u00a0selection\u00a0suggests\u00a0Ibata\u00a0does not place full confidence in\u00a0alternatives such as\u00a0Yuta Izuguchi<\/a>,\u00a0Kotaro Kurebayashi<\/a>,\u00a0Isami Nomura<\/a>, or\u00a0Kaito Kozono<\/a>\u00a0to be \u201cthe guy\u201d at the position.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the newest inclusions, Samurai Japan\u2019s confirmed roster is below.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Samurai Japan Confirmed Roster for 2026 World Baseball Classic
TWP \u2013 Shohei Ohtani (Los Angeles Dodgers)
RHP \u2013 Tomoyuki Sugano (Free Agent)
RHP \u2013 Hiromi Itoh (Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters)
RHP \u2013 Atsuki Taneichi (Chiba Lotte Marines)
RHP \u2013 Kaima Taira (Saitama Seibu Lions)
RHP \u2013 Yuki Matsumoto (Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks)
RHP \u2013 Daichi Ishii (Hanshin Tigers)
RHP \u2013 Taisei (Yomiuri Giants)
LHP \u2013 Yusei Kikuchi (Los Angeles Angels)
LHP \u2013 Yuki Matsui (San Diego Padres)
C \u2013 Seishiro Sakamoto (Hanshin Tigers)
C \u2013 Kenya Wakatsuki (Orix Buffaloes)
2B \u2013 Shugo Maki (Yokohama DeNA BayStars)
3B \u2013 Teruaki Sato (Hanshin Tigers)
SS \u2013 Sosuke Genda (Saitama Seibu Lions)
OF \u2013 Shota Morishita (Hanshin Tigers)
OF \u2013 Ukyo Shuto (Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks)
OF \u2013 Kensuke Kondoh (Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks)
UTL \u2013 Taisei Makihara (Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo: Kensuke Kondoh is returning to play fo Samurai Japan at the 2026 World Baseball Classic. (AP Photo\/Eugene Hoshiko)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Samurai Japan manager\u00a0Hirokazu Ibata officially unveiled 11 more players for the 2026 World Baseball Classic on Friday. Japan\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2302],"tags":[5,2353,2352],"class_list":{"0":"post-523855","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-npb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-nippon-professional-baseball","10":"tag-npb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115906114103171316","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}