With Japan already gearing up for the next World Baseball Classic in 2017, Sadaharu Oh said Tuesday that Boston Red Sox reliever Junichi Tazawa has virtually no chance of playing for his country when the next tournament rolls around.

Oh, who was the manager for Japan when it won the first WBC title in 2006, told Kyodo News that Japan's national team is an exclusive club, the preserve of players who worked their way up through the ranks in Japanese pro ball. Tazawa, a blue-chip prospect as a corporate leaguer, turned his back on Nippon Professional Baseball and signed with the Red Sox as an amateur in 2008.

"He never played (professionally) in Japan," Oh said. "If he had been part of the team, it would have been difficult for him.