PHOENIX — Baby got back.
Pocket-sized World Series hero Yoshinobu Yamamoto has returned to the Dodgers with a substantial posterior that was sculpted over the winter to withstand what promises to be a demanding year that includes the World Baseball Classic.
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Everything about the 5-foot-10 right-hander looks stronger, from his chest to his shoulders to his lower body — especially the backside.
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, of Japan, pauses before throwing live batting practice during spring training baseball Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) AP
Yamamoto said he gained weight but declined to reveal how much.
“A little,” he said in Japanese.
Yamamoto smiled and made a completely unnecessary clarification: “It’s not from a slackening of the spirit.”
No kidding.
Yamamoto looks like a boulder. He looks like a little tank. He looks like he will be the National League’s Cy Young Award winner this year.
If resilience was his greatest obstacle in becoming Japan’s first pitcher to win the prize, he has addressed it.
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A year after acknowledging he was “awfully interested” in the Cy Young Award, Yamamoto said of baseball’s greatest pitching honor, “I think it’s a lovely award, record. I’d like to be able to pitch in a way that would make me be appraised like that.”
Just a day earlier, Shohei Ohtani also said he wanted to win the award.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts chuckled when asked whom his money was on.
“I’m not going to say,” Roberts said.
Shohei Ohtani #17, Yoshinobu Yamamoto #18, and Roki Sasaki #11 of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate in the locker room after defeating the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 in game seven to win the 2025 World Series. Getty Images
Based on what the 27-year-old Yamamoto did last year, he figures to be the safer choice of the two Japanese aces. He was the only pitcher on the team, regardless of nationality, to stay in the rotation for the entire regular season. An All-Star selection, he was 12-8 with a 2.49 ERA in a team-high 30 starts.
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The playoffs elevated him even more. He pitched a complete game against the Brewers in the NL Championship Series. He pitched another against the Blue Jays in the World Series. When the Dodgers ran out of pitchers two days later, he offered to pitch and went as far as to start warming up in the bullpen before Freddie Freeman ended the game with an 18th-inning homer. Yamamoto won his Game 6 start. The very next day, he returned to pitch the final 2 ⅔ innings in a Game 7 victory.
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His efforts made him the World Series MVP.
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As much as he pitched in October, Yamamoto said he didn’t feel any more worn down than usual. If anything, he said, he felt better.
“Honestly, the degree of fatigue on my body wasn’t as bad as in years past,” Yamamoto said. “When I started moving my body after taking a month off, the feel and condition of my body was much better than usual.”
Shohei Ohtani #17 of the Los Angeles Dodgers participates in a pitching drill during spring training workouts at Camelback Ranch on February 13, 2026 in Glendale, Arizona. Getty Images
When he went back to work, he did so again under the watch of his longtime trainer, Osamu Yada. After his start in Game 6 of the World Series, it was Yada who advised him to prepare his body to at least be able to throw in the bullpen the next day. Yada convinced him that his presence in the bullpen would give the Dodgers a psychological advantage over the Blue Jays.
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“That’s how I got tricked,” said Yamamoto, who wound up giving the Dodgers more than just a mental edge.
Yada’s training program for Yamamoto is unusual, consisting of handstands, back bridges and javelin throws. The trainer makes tweaks every year based on what he thinks Yamamoto needs. This winter, he wanted Yamamoto to add some bulk. With Yada by his side, Yamamoto worked out six days a week.
The pitcher has a demanding year ahead of him, but he said he wasn’t concerned about the possible workload.
At the end of the month, Yamamoto will join the Japanese national team for its WBC training camp. He is expected to be the team’s No. 1 starter in the tournament.
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In the months that follow, he will lead the Dodgers’ rotation, this time looking to avoid the midseason slump that removed him from Cy Young contention last year.
These will be chances for Yamamoto to further elevate himself. As it is, he was already being called the best pitcher on the planet by Ohtani when the Dodgers won the World Series last year. When Yamamoto threw live batting practice on Friday, Ohtani and Roki Sasaki watched him from behind home plate in the seiza kneeling position, with their lower legs tucked under their hamstrings. The traditional Japanese method of kneeling is intended to convey respect. In this case, Ohtani and Sasaki were poking fun at Yamamoto, but the premise of their joke was that Yamamoto was a great pitcher.
Now literally bigger, Yamamoto could be on his way to becoming figuratively bigger. By this time next year, the opinion Ohtani shared about Yamamoto’s place in the game could be the consensus.
