Shohei Otani Will Not Play In World Baseball Classic

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Shohei Otani will not play for Japan in the upcoming World Baseball Classic, according to reports from his native Japan.

The Kyodo news service quoted Japan manager Hiroki Kokubo as saying on Friday that Otani will be removed from Japan’s 28-man WBC roster because of a right ankle injury that has been bothering him since October.

“The condition (of his ankle) hasn’t reached a level we had hoped. We’re not in a position where we can ask him to push it,” Kokubo told Kyodo. He also said that he notified Otani of the decision over the phone.

The 22-year-old righthander has been participating in workouts in Arizona this past week with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, his team in Japan’s Pacific League, with the intention of participating in the WBC.

Instead, the two-way star whose fastball has been clocked as high as 102 mph and who has routinely hit home runs that are stuff of legend in Japan, will stay home in an attempt to be ready for the Japanese Pacific League season.

Fighters manager Hideki Kuriyama also said Otani is questionable to be ready in time for the league’s Opening Day on March 31.

Otani is the reigning Pacific League MVP after going 10-4, 1.86 with 174 strikeouts in 140 innings while hitting .322 with 22 home runs and 67 RBIs in 104 games.

He was considered the top international prospect in the upcoming WBC and is expected to surpass Masahiro Tanaka’s seven-year, $155-million contract for the largest contract ever given to a Japanese player when he moves to the United States. The new Collective Bargaining Agreement prevents Otani from receiving such a contract until he is at least 25, meaning it will now be at least a few more years before he gets the chance to compete on U.S. soil.

The loss of Otani is a big blow to Japan, which opens the WBC against Cuba in a Pool B game at the Tokyo Dome on March 7.