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Shohei Ohtani to showcase his two-way talents against the Dodgers this week

June 20, 2023

LOS ANGELES ― The Dodgers have had to pitch to the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani on at least two occasions in each of the last five seasons.

They have never had to face the two-way star as a pitcher, a fate Manager Dave Roberts will no longer be able to avoid Wednesday.

“Given the choice, I’d probably rather him just hit,” Roberts said of Ohtani, “because it’s only four at-bats, where if you’re looking at 110 pitches, that’s pretty daunting.

“You pick your poison with that one.”

Ohtani is scheduled to start the second game of the two-game Freeway Series at Angel Stadium. As a pitcher, Ohtani is leading the major leagues in hits allowed per nine innings and ranks second in strikeouts.

The Dodgers’ beleaguered pitching staff is catching him at an even less opportune time.

Ohtani is riding a 15-game hitting streak in which he is batting .446 with nine home runs and 20 RBIs. If he maintains his current pace over a full season, Ohtani will finish with a franchise-record 53 home runs, 129 RBIs, 109 runs, 22 stolen bases and 10 Wins Above Replacement according to both FanGraphs and Baseball Reference.

There was a time when many within the baseball industry questioned whether Ohtani’s bold two-way experiment would work.

In 2018, Ohtani finished his first spring training with an ERA of 27.00 in two abbreviated appearances. His sixth Cactus League game was against the Dodgers. Ohtani went 0 for 2. Clayton Kershaw struck him out looking on a curveball. Ohtani grounded into a double play in his other plate appearance, lowering his spring batting average to .091.

“I could care less now,” Kershaw said that day about the Dodgers’ failed pursuit of Ohtani in December 2017. “He didn’t pick us, so, you know, good luck to him.”

Much has happened since.

Among other things, a new generation of players has reached the major leagues having never needed to question Ohtani’s ability to pitch and hit full-time at the game’s highest level. That includes several players who could potentially pitch or hit against Ohtani in this series. The Dodgers’ 26-man roster features eight rookies.

Infielder Michael Busch was a sophomore at the University of North Carolina when Ohtani debuted with the Angels.

“We were kind of excited to see it play out,” Busch said. “He’s been doing it at a high level for so many years.”

Other players have been drafted and developed as two-way players since Ohtani debuted. Perhaps the most notable among them, Tampa Bay’s Brendan McKay, is trying to return from Tommy John surgery after five mostly disappointing seasons in the Rays’ minor league system. McKay batted .202 at Triple-A before turning to pitching full-time in 2022.

Another former two-way player, Angels first baseman Jared Walsh, only established himself as a major league regular once he gave up pitching.

If Ohtani were able to inspire a trend of two-way players by his mere presence on the Angels’ roster, today’s youngest big leaguers could have seen it take root in college or the minor leagues. That never happened.

“(Ohtani) is one in I don’t know how many,” outfielder Jonny DeLuca said. “It’s pretty insane. It’s hard enough getting here doing one thing and he’s elite doing both. It’s kind of an anomaly.”

DeLuca played for the University of Oregon with Angels minor leaguer Kenyon Yovan. Drafted as a two-way player, Yovan hit .194 at the Advanced-A level in 2021 and now is a full-time pitcher at Double-A Rocket City.

Another of DeLuca’s Oregon teammates, Ryne Nelson, played shortstop in college but hasn’t picked up a bat in professional baseball. He’s now in his first year in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ starting rotation.

“You see less and less (two-way players) when you get to high school, less when you get to college, and less when you get in the minor leagues, and you can count on your hand the amount of guys who can do it at the major leagues,” Busch said. “And (Ohtani) does it at an extremely high level on both sides of the ball.”

“Hitting’s hard enough,” Dodgers outfielder James Outman said. “I can’t imagine having to pitch on top of it.”

Now, for the first time, the Dodgers will be able to see Ohtani do both.

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