Ohtani stunned the organization during last year's camp when he revealed his marriage in an Instagram post. About two weeks later, Ohtani revealed the identity of his new wife, a former professional basketball player from Japan.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have a big picture vision for stretching out to Japan. The defending World Series champions have branched out to the nation before, through adding Hideo Nomo in 1995. But Andrew Friedman visualized his true goals for the Roki Sasaki and Shohei Ohtani pairing.

The decision is partly a matter of comfort, with Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto accustomed to pitching essentially once a week dating back to their time in Japan. It also factored prominently, the Dodgers believe, into their ability to land phenom Roki Sasaki this winter — like his countrymen, Sasaki is used to pitching on a once-per-week schedule.