Angels’ Ohtani carries a two-way weight
Shohei Ohtani’s arrival in Major League Baseball this winter was met with so much hype, anticipation and historic recalibration — he is seeking to become the first full-time two-way player since Babe Ruth 100 years ago — that we may have forgotten, if only briefly, the difficulties facing him.
There is a reason no one, not even great two-way prospects such as Dave Winfield and Josh Hamilton, had seriously attempted, let alone pulled off, this double-play: Baseball is too specialized, with hitters and pitchers on separate, detailed, daily programs, to allow for someone to do both.
But Ohtani has other factors working against him, namely his move from Japan to MLB, with its jump in talent level and international scrutiny. He is also just 23 years old and technically still a prospect, as underscored by his No. 1 ranking in MLB Pipeline’s top-prospects list.
Perhaps, then, Ohtani’s struggles this spring for the Los Angeles Angels should not be a major surprise. With opening day on March 29, Ohtani’s spring ERA sits at 16.21 (including one outing in a B game against a Mexican team), with four homers allowed in 81/3 innings. (He does, however, have 19 strikeouts, and his fastball has been clocked as high as 98 miles per hour, additional confirmation that his raw stuff will certainly play in the American League.)
At the plate, he has been just as ineffective — or worse — going two for 24 (.083) and occasionally appearing overmatched by big league pitching. Most MLB talent evaluators were in agreement from the start that he was further along as a pitcher than as a hitter when he signed with the Angels in December.
Ohtani’s two-way struggles have led to speculation the Angels could decide to send him to the minor leagues to start the season. Such a move would have the added benefit of delaying his major league service-time clock, possibly giving the Angels an extra year of control over him before free agency.
The Angels have played down the possibility of a late-spring demotion, with general manager Billy Eppler expressing optimism in Ohtani’s two-way skills: “The track record (in Japan) gives us the confidence to move forward with him as a two-way player,” he said.
“We’re not going to get into roster decisions,” manager Mike Scioscia said. “I can only say that Shohei’s talent is real. Obviously we believe in it.”
Scioscia insisted all the signs are present — namely, health and ability — that would indicate everything is fine with their young superstar, even if the stats would indicate otherwise.
“We’re looking at the process.,” he said. “We’re looking at on the pitching side, his pitch execution. If that’s a little bit off, is it a mechanical issue? Is it just a releasepoint issue? Spin rates, things like that — we know what Shohei is capable of. That’s how we’re measuring him.… We’re not measuring him on ERA.”
The Angels open their season on March 29 at Oakland Coliseum against the A’s. The possibility of Ohtani lining up as designated hitter on opening day, then striding to the mound two days later to start the season’s third game, remains a fascinating and historic storyline. A small sample-size of struggling in his first four weeks in a new country, against new competition, doesn’t mean he can’t excel.
But if this spring has shown us anything, it is that we can’t assume immediate and sustained success for this revolutionary player. When Ohtani struggles, he may look twice as bad as anyone else.