There is only one achievement in baseball more amazing than Shohei Ohtani succeeding at an elite level as a hitter and pitcher: that he has done it for this long. He blows away Babe Ruth in two-way longevity.
But even Ohtani has slumps. And when he does, as he has over the past few weeks, the question is inevitable: How long can he keep up this pace excelling as a two-way player? Angels manager Phil Nevin promises to lighten Ohtani’s workload this year, but only by a bit.
“What did he play, 158 games last year?” Nevin says. It was 157. “It won't be that many, that’s for sure. I do plan on giving him a few more days here and there. But right now, he says he feels great. I know he’s in what people would term as a little bit of a slump offensively, but it hasn’t been [that long] and I’m not really counting.”
