yoshinobu yamamoto

Shohei Ohtani will once again represent Team Japan in next year’s World Baseball Classic.

Whether or not he pitches in the international tournament, however, remains unclear.

On Monday, Ohtani announced on Instagram he is planning to participate in the WBC for the second time in his career.

In the 2023 WBC, he won tournament MVP with a .435 batting average and 1.86 pitching ERA, helping Japan to that year’s title. He punctuated the event with his memorable strikeout of Mike Trout for the final out in the championship game.

“I’m happy to play again representing Japan,” Ohtani wrote in Japanese on Monday.

The question now is whether Ohtani will pitch in the event, which takes place in March, just five months removed from his heavy postseason workload during the Dodgers’ run to a second-consecutive World Series title.

At this point, no decision on that front has seemingly been made.

After spending the first half of the 2025 season limited only to designated hitting duties while completing his recovery from a 2023 Tommy John procedure, the 31-year-old Ohtani resumed his two-way role over the second half, making 14 pitching starts for the Dodgers from June to September while increasing his workload one inning at a time.

By the postseason, he was fully built up for full-length starts, and went on to throw 20⅓ innings over four playoff outings — including a 2⅓ inning appearance on shortened three days’ rest in Game 7 of the World Series.

Oftentimes, pitchers who are that heavily taxed during a deep playoff run will consider sitting out a WBC the following year because of the early ramp-up required to throw in the tournament takes place during spring training.

However, the WBC is of supreme importance in the Japanese baseball community; more significant even than the World Series. And Ohtani is the face of the county’s iconic Samurai Japan national team, which will be trying to win its fourth WBC title.

Shohei Ohtani celebrates with his teammates after striking out Mike Trout to secure Japan’s World Baseball Classic championship win over the United States in 2023.

(Wilfredo Lee / Associated Press)

Ohtani is expected to hit in the event, coming off a career-high 55-homer season that helped him earn a third-consecutive MVP Award and the fourth of his MLB career.

But there remains no indication about whether he will pitch, nor if such a decision has been made between him and the Dodgers (who can’t block Ohtani from participating in the event, but could request he either not pitch or follow strict usage rules given he missed the first half of last season on the mound).

It is unlikely that decision will be made until closer to the tournament.

The Dodgers’ two other Japanese pitchers, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, face a similar dynamic leading into next year’s WBC.

Yamamoto made 30 starts in the 2025 regular season, the most of his MLB or Japanese career, then threw 37⅓ more innings in six outings during the playoffs — including his heroic back-to-back victories in Games 6 and 7 of the World Series.

Sasaki missed most of his rookie MLB season with a shoulder injury, but returned late in the year and became the team’s de facto closer in the playoffs. Next year, he is slated to return to the starting rotation.

Like Ohtani, they are both key cogs in the Dodgers’ 2026 pitching plans, which, as manager Dave Roberts alluded to during a promotional tour in Japan last week, could make the WBC something of a potential complication.

“We’ll support them,” Roberts told the Japanese media. “But I do think that the pitching, it’s a lot on the body, the arm. The rest will be beneficial for next year, for our season. But we understand how important the WBC is for these individual players and for the country of Japan.”

The Dodgers could choose to block Sasaki’s participation in the WBC, since he spent much of last year on the 60-day injured list, but have not yet given any indication about whether they would do so.

The club can’t do the same with Yamamoto, but could still try advocating for him to be used more conservatively in the tournament coming off his especially burdensome October performance.

For now, at least, what is known is that Ohtani will participate in some capacity.

But whether he, or his Japanese Dodgers teammates, will pitch in the tournament will remain a subplot as the offseason progresses.

Legendary graffiti artist Daniel “Chaka” Ramos once claimed he had tagged more than 40,000 locations around Los Angeles.

He can now add seven more. And unlike decades ago — when Ramos had to sneak around in darkness to spray-paint his nickname in large, block letters all over the city and surrounding areas — this time it was fully permissible.

Earlier this month, Nike recruited Ramos to add his signature style to seven murals celebrating the Dodgers’ back-to-back World Series titles, which the team clinched Nov. 1 with a dramatic Game 7 victory against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Ramos, an L.A. native and Dodgers fan, was more than happy to participate, adding his name and slogans crafted by Nike to each piece. He told The Times in an email that it was his “first major project with a corporate giant like Nike.”

A mural of Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto is a temporary addition to the downtown Los Angeles skyline.

(Natasha Campos / Nike)

“They’re one of the most prolific creative forces in the world, and collaborating with them was a milestone for me,” the 53-year-old artist said. “The rush of graffiti can’t really be compared to commissioned or gallery work, but this experience came close.”

The Nike murals, which are scheduled to remain up through Nov. 30, are among the pieces included in a new and quickly expanding online map detailing the locations of Dodgers murals in and around L.A. The map was created by and is curated by Mike Asner, the mastermind behind a similar website that documents the locations of hundreds of Kobe and Gianna Bryant murals around the world.

Asner already has a full-time job as a marketing director in sports and entertainment, as well as maintaining the Bryant mural site. Still, the morning after the Dodgers clinched their second straight championship, Asner knew it was time to get to start tracking more murals.

“I think the reception from the fans and the artists I got to know from the Kobe mural project was very positive,” Asner, who also has an Instagram page highlighting Dodgers murals, said. “And the main thing I realized was it was helping people and providing a service to them and making things easier. … After the Dodgers won back-to-back championships, we started to see murals going up immediately, so I felt it would be the right thing to do again.”

The map currently includes 54 murals, located as far north as Van Nuys and all the way down to Lake Elsinore. One of the standouts for Asner is a sprawling painting by artist Royyal Dog in the Florence-Graham neighborhood in South Los Angeles (2619 Firestone Blvd.). It features portraits of many all-time Dodgers greats, including Tommy Lasorda, Fernando Valenzuela, Orel Hershiser, Clayton Kershaw, Justin Turner, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani.

A sprawling mural by Royyal Dog in South Los Angeles features images of Dodgers greats past and present, including Yoshinobu Yamamoto (second from right) and Freddie Freeman (far right).

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Another of his favorites is one by artist Gustavo Zermeño Jr. on the Eat Fantastic building in Redondo Beach (701 N. Pacific Coast Highway). A tribute to the 2024 World Series championship, the mural features Betts, Freeman and Ohtani but is highlighted by a larger-than-life image of Lakers legend Bryant wearing a basketball jersey with Dodgers colors and lettering.

The Nike-Chaka collaborations represent some of the newer artwork documented on Asner’s map. A Nike spokesperson said the idea was to give Ramos approved spaces in local neighborhoods to express the pride that Dodgers fans are feeling after back-to-back championships.

Two of the murals were painted directly on the walls by L.A.-based artists, with Ramos adding the slogans and his tag afterward. Artist Swank One painted the one at 2844 1st St. in Boyle Heights. It features relief pitcher Roki Sasaki and Smith embracing after the Dodgers clinched the National League pennant, with the slogan “On the Double.”

Graffiti artist Daniel ‘Chaka’ Ramos was commissioned by Nike to apply his tag to several temporary murals around Los Angeles celebrating the Dodgers’ back-to-back World Series championships.

(Natasha Campos / Nike)

Artists Enkone and Keorock painted at 4560 Whittier Blvd. in East L.A. The mural features pitcher Blake Snell, whose postseason included a one-hit, eighth-inning gem in Game 1 of the NLCS, with the slogan “Twice as Nice.” That mural has since been removed.

For four of the others, Nike licensed game photos from Getty Images, overlaid tag designs from Ramos and then had the images blown up and printed as murals.

Those include “Twice in a Blue Moon” in Silverlake (at Hollywood Boulevard and Hillhurst Avenue), featuring Max Muncy and Hyesong Kim; “Repeat Heroes” in Echo Park (at West Temple Street and North Boylston Street), featuring Smith and Sasaki; “Turn Two, Earn Two” in Echo Park (atSunset Boulevard and Marion Avenue), featuring Muncy; and “Dodgers Rule” — a play on Ramos’ longtime slogan “Chaka Rules” — in Westlake/Echo Park (at Beverly Boulevard and Commonwealth Avenue), featuring Sasaki.

The last mural features a photo of Yamamoto letting out a roar. The photo was blown up several stories high and installed several stories higher in downtown L.A. at 213 S. Broadway. Ramos then boarded a suspended scaffold and was lifted high above his hometown, where he spent four to five hours adding his tag and the slogan “Back 2 Back.”

It may not have been as daring as some of the stunts he pulled in the past, but Ramos definitely felt the rush.

“I’ve done graffiti at daredevil heights without a harness before, but nothing at this scale. This time I actually had to gear up with a harness — haha,” he wrote. “It was intense, but a lot of fun.”

The Nike-Chaka murals will be coming down soon, but Asner says he’s excited to see what other new creations might fill out the map in the aftermath of the latest championship run.

“We’re gonna see really amazing artwork going up, and we’re gonna see artwork of Dodgers that haven’t necessarily been on murals. like Will Smith and Yoshinobu Yamamoto,” Asner said. “There’s a lot of really big stars from this series that deserve to get credit for their amazing job. …

“You know, Ohtani was incredible, obviously, Friedman was incredible. But there were a lot of big players that stepped up — Miggy Rojas, right? Huge, huge reason they won. So it’s gonna be great to see what these artists do, and I’m looking forward to seeing it myself.”

The road to becoming the first repeat World Series champion in 25 years was not a smooth one for the Dodgers, who captured their ninth championship in franchise history when they knocked off the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 in 11 innings of a Game 7 for the ages.

After winning nine of their first 10 postseason contests, the Dodgers had to slog through a seven-game World Series that included two extra-inning wins — one in 18 innings — and consecutive losses at home that put their season on the brink.

But in the end, the Dodgers emerged with their second consecutive championship and third in six seasons. How did they make it happen? Here are some moments that galvanized the Dodgers’ run to another World Series triumph.

A great escape, with a wheel man

Mookie Betts broached the idea of running the wheel play as the Dodgers tried to hang on for dear life in Game 2 of the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Ballpark. In a tribute to executing the fundamentals, Max Muncy pounced on a bunt and Betts tagged out the lead runner at third base to help the Dodgers survive the ninth inning and grab a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series.

Ohtani’s iconic performance

A look at the three home runs Shohei Ohtani hit in Game 4 of the NLCS.

Based on the first inning alone, Shohei Ohtani would’ve produced an unforgettable performance in Game 4 of the NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers, striking out three in a row following a leadoff walk as the Dodgers’ starting pitcher and then homering as his team’s leadoff batter to stake himself to an early lead. But Ohtani homered twice more — including a 469-foot blast over the right-field pavilion — and went on to strike out 10 in six innings to help the Dodgers secure their second consecutive NL pennant.

Another complete game by Yamamoto

Yoshinobu Yamamoto had already thrown a complete game in Game 2 of the NLCS, the first one by a Dodgers pitcher since José Lima in 2004. But Yamamoto went into more rarefied air when he threw another one in Game 2 of the World Series in a 5-1 win over the Blue Jays — becoming the first Dodger to throw consecutive postseason complete games since Orel Hershiser in 1988.

Kershaw’s moment

The anguish and heartbreak of Clayton Kershaw‘s postseason history is well known, and the Dodger Stadium crowd braced itself when he entered Game 3 of the World Series with the bases loaded and two outs in the 12th inning. In an eight-pitch battle with the Jays’ Nathan Lukes, Kershaw induced a soft grounder to second baseman Tommy Edman that he had to charge and scoop over with his glove to first baseman Freddie Freeman to escape the jam.

The Will Klein Game

As Game 3 of the World Series dragged into the 15th inning, the Dodgers turned to Will Klein, the last reliever in their bullpen — though Yamamoto was later warming for a potential 19th inning. Klein, acquired by the Dodgers in a minor trade on June 2, threw 72 pitches — the most he’s thrown as a professional — over four scoreless innings to keep the Dodgers in it.

Freeman, the walkoff sequel

In a World Series Game 3 that featured 19 pitchers, 25 position players, 609 pitches thrown and 153 trips to the plate, it was something familiar that won it for the Dodgers in the 18th inning: a Freeman walk-off home run. One year and two days after his iconic walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series, Freeman smashed a solo shot to center field to lift the Dodgers to a 6-5 win and a 2-1 series lead.

Kiké Hernández, October hero

Left fielder Kiké Hernández added another chapter to his October legacy in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 6 with the Dodgers trying to hang on to a 3-1 lead and keep their season alive. With runners on second and third and one out, Hernández played shallow and was in good position to catch a sinking line drive by Andrés Giménez before firing a throw to second baseman Miguel Rojas, who caught it on a bounce to double off the runner at second and force a Game 7.

Miguel Rojas ninth-inning hero

Rojas became the ninth-inning focal point in Game 7 as he came up to bat with the Dodgers trailing 4-3 and two outs away from losing the World Series. Rojas, who had one homer since the All-Star break, worked the count full before hammering a game-tying shot to left. In the bottom of the inning, with the bases loaded and the infield in with one out, Rojas fielded a grounder cleanly and came up firing to force the runner out at home and preserve the tie.

The Catch

One batter later and with the bases still loaded, it was Andy Pages’ turn to be the defensive hero. Inserted mid-inning at center field for his strong arm, Pages found himself using his legs to cover a lot of ground on a deep fly ball to left-center that Hernández was trying to catch over his shoulder before colliding with Pages as the center fielder secured the ball to carry the game into extra innings.

Will Smith, home run hero

As Game 7 entered the 11th inning, it was catcher Will Smith who was in the right place at the right time. Smith, who’d worked his way back into the lineup after suffering a hairline fracture in his right hand in September, turned on a 2-0 slider for his second home run of the series to put the Dodgers in front for the first time in the game.

Yamamoto with the exclamation point

Entering Game 7 during that ninth-inning jam that Rojas and Pages helped him escape, Yamamoto retired the Jays in order in the 10th and then worked around a leadoff double in the 11th, fiedling a sacrifice bunt and then walking a batter before inducing a double play to seal the Dodgers’ repeat championship. For Yamamoto in the World Series, the final tally was three wins, the last coming in relief after throwing 96 pitches the night before in Game 6, and the MVP award.

TORONTO — Shortly after the Dodgers won Game 6 of the World Series, Yoshinobu Yamamoto approached his longtime personal trainer.

Lowering his head, Yamamoto said to Osamu Yada, “Thank you for everything this year.”

Yamamoto figured his season was over. He’d thrown 96 pitches over six innings, and he half-joked in the postgame news conference that he wanted to cheer on his team rather than pitch again the next day. Manager Dave Roberts had the same thought, saying Yamamoto would be the only pitcher unavailable in Game 7.

The trainer had other ideas.

“Let’s see if you can throw in the bullpen tomorrow,” Yada said.

By just being in the bullpen, Yada said, Yamamoto could provide the Dodgers a psychological edge over the Toronto Blue Jays.

“That’s how I got tricked,” Yamamoto said in Japanese with a laugh.

Yada’s guiding hand transformed Yamamoto into a legend on Saturday night.

Pitching the final 2 ⅔ innings of an 11-inning, championship-clinching 5-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, Yamamoto won his third game of the World Series.

When he forced Alejando Kirk to ground into a game-ending double play, Yamamoto removed his cap and raised his arms toward the heavens. Catcher Will Smith rushed the mound and picked him up from the waist.

“I felt a joy I never felt before,” Yamamoto said.

Dodgers catcher Will Smith picks up Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto after the final out of a 5-4 win in 11 innings over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of the World Series on Saturday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Yamamoto pitched a complete game in Game 2. He pitched six more in Game 6. His contributions in Game 7 increased his series total to 17 ⅔ innings, over which he allowed only two runs.

The throwback performance earned him the series’ most valuable player award, as well as universal admiration.

“I really think he’s the No. 1 pitcher in the world,” Shohei Ohtani said in Japanese. “Everyone on the team thinks that, too.”

Freddie Freeman marveled at the workload shouldered by the 5-foot-10 Yamamoto, who was sidelined for three months last year with shoulder problems.

“I mean, he pitched last night, started,” Freeman said. “He threw the most innings out of our pitchers tonight.”

Freeman pointed out that in addition to pitching in three games, Yamamoto also warmed up to pitch in a fourth. Two days after his complete game in Game 2, he prepared in the bullpen to pitch a potential 19th inning in Game 3. The Dodgers won that game in the 18th inning.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Freeman said.

President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said of Yamamoto’s Game 7 performance, “For him to have the same stuff that he had the night before is really the greatest accomplishment I’ve ever seen on a major league baseball field.”

Did Friedman think any other pitcher could have done what Yamamoto did in this series?

“No, I don’t,” Friedman said. “In fact, yesterday morning I didn’t necessarily think Yama could either.”

Friedman said he didn’t think much of it when he was notified after Game 6 that Yamamoto was receiving treatment from Yada at the team hotel with the intention of perhaps pitching in Game 7. Friedman was told the next morning that Yamamoto received another round of treatment.

The possibility of Yamamoto pitching in Game 7 became real to Friedman after he performed his trademark javelin-throwing routine and played catch at Rogers Centre. Yamamoto still wasn’t convinced.

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, left, celebrates with Shohei Ohtani and teammates after a 5-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 of the World Series at Rogers Centre on Saturday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“I didn’t think I would pitch,” Yamamoto said. “But I felt good when I practiced, and the next thing I knew, I was on the mound (in the game).”

Yamamoto’s interpreter, Yoshihiro Sonoda, was prepared.

The superstitious Sonoda wears the same pair of lucky underwear on days Yamamoto pitches. He wore the rabbit-themed boxers for Game 6. Sensing Yamamoto might pitch again, Sonoda wore the same boxers for Game 7.

“Just in case,” Sonoda admitted, “I didn’t wash them.”

Yamamoto had never pitched on consecutive days as a professional, in either the United States or Japan. When was called on to relieve Blake Snell in the ninth inning, he was uncertain of how he would perform.

Inheriting two baserunners from Snell with one out, Yamamoto loaded the bases by plunking Kirk. He forced Dalton Varsho to ground into a force out at home, only to throw a curveball to Ernie Clement that was driven to the wall in left field. Defensive replacement Andy Pages crashed into Kiké Hernández on the warning track but held on to the ball, preventing the Blue Jays from scoring the walk-off run.

Yamamoto pitched a 1-2-3 10th inning and went into the bottom of the 11th with a 5-4 lead, courtesy of a homer by Smith in the top of the inning.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. started the inning by pulling a 96.9-mph fastball for a double and advanced to third base on a sacrifice bunt by Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Yamamoto walked Addison Barger to place runners on the corners, setting up the game-ending double play by Kirk.

“I really couldn’t believe it,” Yamamoto said. “I was so excited I couldn’t even recall what kind of pitch I threw at the end. When my teammates ran to me, I felt the greatest joy I’ve felt up to this point.”

Clayton Kershaw, whom Yamamoto wanted to send into retirement with another championship, embraced him harder than he’d ever embraced him. Roberts swallowed him an embrace.

Yamamoto was moved to tears.

Overwhelmed by the moment, Yamamoto didn’t sound as if he grasped the magnitude of what he’d just done. In time, he will.

On the night the Dodgers solidified their dynasty, Yamamoto made this World Series his.