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Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani expressed regret Monday for his "shortcomings" following Japan’s early exit from the World Baseball Classic.
It is unclear what those shortcomings might have been. Over four games during this year’s tournament, Ohtani led Japan with a .462 batting average, three home runs, and seven RBIs in 13 at-bats.
These stats are even better than those he posted as the MVP of the last WBC. Over seven games in 2023, Ohtani hit .435 with one home run and eight RBIs in 23 at-bats, leading Japan to its third WBC championship.
Overall, however, Japan finished with a .284 batting average, down from a .299 average three years ago. Ohtani recorded his team’s final out of the 2026 tournament—an infield popup that sealed an 8-5 quarterfinal loss to Venezuela on Saturday—and took to Instagram two days later.
"Thank you to all the fans for your support. Your cheers pushed us forward every day," Ohtani wrote in Japanese. "We didn’t achieve the results we hoped for, and I deeply regret my own shortcomings."
The two-way superstar did not pitch in this year’s WBC, after famously striking out then-Angels teammate Mike Trout of the United States for the final out of the 2023 championship game and going 2-0 with one save and a 1.86 ERA in that tournament.
Ohtani underwent his second Tommy John surgery in September 2023 and did not pitch again until last June with the Dodgers. Manager Dave Roberts revealed in January that Ohtani had decided not to pitch in the WBC.
