{"id":554520,"date":"2026-02-04T17:15:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T17:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/554520\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T17:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T17:15:16","slug":"2026-world-baseball-classic-samurai-japan-finalizes-roster-with-masataka-yoshida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/554520\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 World Baseball Classic: Samurai Japan Finalizes Roster with Masataka Yoshida"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, manager\u00a0Hirokazu Ibata<\/a>\u00a0announced Samurai Japan\u2019s 29-man roster for the 2026 World Baseball Classic, leaving one spot open to be\u00a0finalized\u00a0at a later date. <\/p>\n

The vacancy was widely believed to be reserved for a player from Major League Baseball pending confirmation, and that player has now been officially revealed as Boston Red Sox outfielder\u00a0Masataka Yoshida<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to everybody\u2019s continued support, I\u2019ve been given the opportunity to wear the Samurai Japan jersey once again,\u201d Yoshida wrote on Instagram. \u201cI\u2019ll embrace this responsibility and pride and give it my all out there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yoshida, 32, is entering the fourth season of his five-year contract with the Boston Red Sox. He battled injuries last year and was limited to 55 games, hitting .266\/.307\/.388 with four home runs. Overall, Yoshida has been an above-average MLB hitter, posting a 109 OPS+ with an elite 13% strikeout rate over 1,206 career plate appearances, but has drawn criticism for his poor defense and modest power production, fueling frequent trade speculation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before coming stateside, Yoshida was one of the generation\u2019s premier hitters in Nippon Professional Baseball with the Orix Buffaloes from 2016-22, slashing .327\/.421\/.539 with 133 homers across 762 games. He also delivered one of the most memorable moments of the 2023 World Baseball Classic, launching a clutch, game-tying three-run shot against Mexico in the semifinals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Yoshida\u2019s addition, Japan\u2019s roster now consists of 21 players from NPB and nine from MLB, the\u00a0most big\u00a0leaguers the nation has ever brought to a WBC tournament. Yoshida joins a crowded outfield mix that includes\u00a0Seiya Suzuki<\/a>,\u00a0Shota Morishita<\/a>,\u00a0Kensuke Kondoh<\/a>,\u00a0Ukyo Shuto<\/a>, and\u00a0Teruaki Sato<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Given his defensive limitations (and with\u00a0Shohei Ohtani<\/a>\u00a0firmly cemented as the designated hitter), Yoshida is expected to compete for a starting corner outfield spot alongside\u00a0Kondoh\u00a0and Sato. He is expected to open camp with Boston before joining the Samurai in Osaka, along with the other MLB-based players, for exhibition games at the beginning of March.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the latest announcement, Samurai Japan\u2019s full 30-man roster is below.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Samurai Japan 2026 World Baseball Classic Roster<\/p>\n

TWP \u2013 Shohei Ohtani (Los Angeles Dodgers)
RHP \u2013 Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Los Angeles Dodgers)
RHP \u2013 Tomoyuki Sugano (Free Agent)
RHP \u2013 Hiromi Itoh (Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters)
RHP \u2013 Koki Kitayama (Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters)
RHP \u2013 Atsuki\u00a0Taneichi\u00a0(Chiba Lotte Marines)
RHP \u2013 Hiroto Takahashi (Chunichi\u00a0Dragons)
RHP \u2013\u00a0Kaima\u00a0Taira (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)
LHP \u2013 Hiroya\u00a0Miyagi (Orix Buffaloes)
LHP \u2013 Ryuhei\u00a0Sotani\u00a0(Orix Buffaloes)
C \u2013\u00a0Seishiro\u00a0Sakamoto (Hanshin Tigers)
C \u2013 Kenya Wakatsuki (Orix Buffaloes)
C \u2013 Yuhei Nakamura (Tokyo Yakult Swallows)
1B \u2013 Munetaka Murakami (Chicago White Sox)
2B \u2013 Shugo Maki (Yokohama\u00a0DeNA\u00a0BayStars)
3B \u2013 Kazuma Okamoto (Toronto Blue Jays)
3B \u2013 Teruaki Sato (Hanshin Tigers)
SS \u2013 Kaito\u00a0Kozono\u00a0(Hiroshima Toyo Carp)
SS \u2013 Sosuke Genda (Saitama Seibu Lions)
OF \u2013 Masataka Yoshida (Boston Red Sox)
OF \u2013 Seiya Suzuki (Chicago Cubs)
OF \u2013 Shota Morishita\u00a0(Hanshin Tigers)
OF \u2013 Ukyo Shuto (Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks)
OF \u2013 Kensuke\u00a0Kondoh\u00a0(Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks)
UTL \u2013 Taisei Makihara (Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo: Masataka Yoshida #7 of the Boston Red Sox looks on during a team Spring Training workout at JetBlue Park at Fenway South on February 20, 2024 in Fort Myers, Florida. (Photo by Maddie Malhotra\/Boston Red Sox\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, manager\u00a0Hirokazu Ibata\u00a0announced Samurai Japan\u2019s 29-man roster for the 2026 World Baseball Classic, leaving one spot open…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2302],"tags":[5,2353,2352],"class_list":{"0":"post-554520","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\/116013493554786411","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554520","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=554520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}