Japan manager Hiroki Kokubo is banking on team-building rather than flexibility as he heads into the World Baseball Classic next month.

On Sunday, Kokubo clarified the seemingly peculiar choice of naming only one active pitcher on his roster as a member of the team's replacement pitching pool — who can be switched out after either of the tournament's first two rounds without injury.

The designated pitcher pool, a new facet of this year's WBC, gives pitching-rich nations, such as the United States and Japan, the luxury of keeping big arms in reserve for the later rounds, but Kokubo emphasized he has chosen to ignore the allure of additional flexibility.