Ohtani leads the way for loaded Japan roster

Samurai Japan has won two of the four World Baseball Classics -- the inaugural tournament in 2006 and the second one in 2009 -- and placed third in the other two. But Japan's WBC '23 team might be its most stacked roster yet.

Shohei Ohtani. Yu Darvish. Munetaka Murakami. Roki Sasaki. Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Masataka Yoshida. The mix of MLB and NPB superstars is incredible.

Japan has an MLB MVP in Ohtani. It has a reigning NPB MVP in Murakami. And that's just the beginning for the only country to win WBC gold twice. Let's take a look at the 2023 roster for Japan, which will host Pool B of the tournament at the Tokyo Dome.

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Here's a position-by-position breakdown of Team Japan. Within each position, players are listed in alphabetical order, with any affiliation to an MLB organization noted in parentheses.

Catchers: Takuya Kai, Yuhei Nakamura, Takumi Oshiro

Japan's three catchers are all new to the World Baseball Classic. Kai and Nakamura are defensive stars. The 30-year-old Kai has won six straight Mitsui Golden Gloves, in addition to being a three-time NPB All-Star and six-time Japan Series champion with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks -- including being named the 2018 Japan Series MVP after a record six consecutive caught stealings. The 32-year-old Nakamura is also a former Japan Series MVP, winning in 2021 with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, and is a seven-time NPB All-Star and three-time Golden Glove winner. Oshiro is probably the most dangerous hitter of the trio, batting .266 with 13 home runs and 43 RBIs for the Yomiuri Giants in 2022.

Infielders: Sosuke Genda, Shugo Maki, Munetaka Murakami, Takumu Nakano, Kazuma Okamoto, Ukyo Shuto, Tetsuto Yamada, Hotaka Yamakawa

Murakami is the superstar to watch in his first World Baseball Classic. The lefty slugger is the best hitter in Japan, and he's only 23 years old. Murakami just shattered Sadaharu Oh's single-season NPB record for the most home runs by a Japanese-born player, crushing 56 homers for the Swallows in 2022. He also won the Triple Crown, with a .318 batting average and 134 RBIs to go with the 56 home runs, en route to unanimous MVP honors.

But the Japanese infield is full of notable names. Okamoto has hit 30-plus home runs in each of the last five seasons for the Giants and led NPB's Central League in homers and RBIs in 2020 and '21. Yamakawa has three 40-homer seasons for the Seibu Lions and three Pacific League home run crowns, including 2022 (41). Speedsters Shuto and Nakano have each won a league stolen base title. Genda is a great defensive shortstop who's won four Golden Glove Awards. And Yamada is a WBC veteran who hit .296 with a 1.005 OPS as Japan's leadoff hitter in the 2017 tournament.

Outfielders: Kensuke Kondo, Lars Nootbaar (Cardinals), Seiya Suzuki (Cubs), Masataka Yoshida (Red Sox)

Japan's outfield is stacked with Major League talent. Suzuki made the jump to MLB in 2022 and batted .262 with 14 home runs and a 116 OPS+ for the Cubs in his debut season. Yoshida is next -- the 29-year-old left-handed hitter, a two-time batting champion in NPB who hit .335 with 21 homers for Orix last season, is joining the Red Sox in 2023. Japan even has the California native Nootbaar, whose mother is Japanese. The 25-year-old had 14 home runs and a 126 OPS+ for the Cardinals in 2022. Kondo is a .307 career hitter over 11 NPB seasons with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.

Pitchers: Yu Darvish (Padres), Shota Imanaga^, Hiromi Itoh, Ryoji Kuribayashi, Yuki Matsui^, Hiroya Miyagi^, Taisei Ota, Roki Sasaki, Hiroto Takahashi, Keiji Takahashi^, Shosei Togo, Yuki Udagawa, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Atsuki Yuasa

What a loaded pitching staff. Darvish represents the Major Leagues, returning to the World Baseball Classic for the first time since 2009, when he picked up the win in the championship game against Korea and posted a 2.08 ERA in the tournament.

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He's joined by the new wave of NPB aces, led by the 24-year-old right-hander Yamamoto of the Orix Buffaloes and the 21-year-old righty Sasaki of the Chiba Lotte Marines. Yamamoto is the best pitcher in Japan, winner of back-to-back Sawamura Awards (NPB's Cy Young equivalent) and Triple Crowns. Sasaki might be the most electric -- he throws 100 mph and pitched a 19-strikeout perfect game last April. There's also the star 29-year-old lefty Imanaga, who went 11-4 with a 2.26 ERA and 132 strikeouts for the Yokohama DeNa Baystars in 2022.

And this doesn't even include Ohtani, who's on the roster as a two-way player, of course.

^ Left-handed pitcher

Two-way player: Shohei Ohtani (Angels)

We finally get to see Ohtani in the World Baseball Classic. It remains to be seen how Japan will use the two-way superstar, but Ohtani has no restrictions from the Angels. There was talk of Ohtani serving as Japan's closer, but he's also one of the most powerful hitters in the entire tournament. The 2021 AL MVP has 80 home runs and a .918 OPS over his last two seasons in the Majors, to go along with his 2.70 ERA and 375 strikeouts on the mound.