The legend of Shohei Ohtani grows with every stop of his unprecedented two-way tour, but so does the pathos. This is what New York can do. The footlights of its stage are so bright as to expose and exaggerate truth. Not even Ohtani in all his greatness, and even in partnership with Mike Trout, might be able to save the Angels from their usual appointment with mediocrity.
Two nights at Yankee Stadium exposed the sweet and sour of what might be Ohtani’s last season with the Angels. A 5–2 win Tuesday in which Ohtani homered was followed by a 3–2 loss Wednesday in which Aaron Judge robbed him of a homer in a plot twist that looked like something ripped off from Guardians of the Galaxy, the 2022 MVP winning a battle of superpowers by mere inches over the 2021 MVP.
And so the beat goes on ... the Angels dropping to 9–9 even with a healthy Ohtani, Trout and Anthony Rendon, their three $30-plus million players. Ohtani has never played on a winning team in the majors. Since he joined the Angels in 2018, they are 70–49 (.588) when he hits a home run and 267–340 (.440) when he doesn’t. Watching Ohtani languish with the Angels is like scoring tickets to a Springsteen show—and finding out it’s all acoustic. Cool, but you know something is missing.
Now, it’s too early to write off Los Angeles as posting a ninth straight season without reaching the playoffs. But with the Rangers and Twins looking much stronger than last season, the competition is intense for one of the six AL playoff spots. To reach the postseason, the Angels must win a difficult AL West or be better than at least three of these eight teams: the Yankees, Rays, Blue Jays, Guardians, Twins, Astros, Rangers and Mariners. Like last season, it likely will require at least 90 wins, a height Los Angeles hasn’t reached since 2014.
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The shame is that, three years into full-time two-way duty, Ohtani is better than ever. The Babe Ruth comparisons no longer apply directly. Ohtani has kept up this phenomenal dual role 46% longer than Ruth did. Ruth was a true two-way player only one month into the 1918 season and through four months of the next season. Ruth’s run covered 225 games in ’18 and ’19. Ohtani’s run is 329 games and counting over the 2021 to ’23 seasons.
The pitching record in the prime two-way seasons of Ruth (22–12, 2.55) and Ohtani (26–11, 2.58) are nearly identical. Ohtani has outhomered Ruth as a full-time two-way player, 84–40.
The separation from Ruth’s legend is growing. Angels manager Phil Nevin noticed a new, improved Ohtani in spring training right away.
“He came in very strong,” Nevin says. “He added, I don’t know, 10 or 15 pounds of muscle.”
Then Ohtani left for the World Baseball Classic, where he led Japan to the title with his hitting, pitching and newfound leadership voice. Before Japan played the U.S. in the final, Ohtani addressed the team in the clubhouse.
“I have only one thing to say. Let’s get rid of this sense of adoration, shall we?” he said. “They’ve got [Paul] Goldschmidt as the first baseman. And look at center field, we’ll see Mike Trout there, and Mookie Betts in the outfield. Anybody who plays baseball has heard of them.
“But if we idolize them, we can’t surpass them. We’ve come here to surpass them and to reach the top.
“Just for today, let’s get rid of our adoration for them and think about nothing but winning. Let’s go!”
Ohtani, after warming his arm in between at bats as a DH, ended the WBC championship game by retiring two MVPs, Mookie Betts on a double-play grounder and Trout on a strikeout.
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The serendipity of the Ohtani-Trout matchup was nearly met by the schedule maker bringing Ohtani and the Angels to Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, exactly 100 years to the day the original Yankee Stadium opened with the largest crowd to ever witness a ballgame to that point (74,217), John Philip Sousa conducting his 7th Regiment Band, commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis taking a subway to the first triple-decked stadium (“No ball fan rides to the game in a cab,” the judge scoffed), concessionaire Harry M. Stevens abiding by the Volstead Act by selling “near” beer with one-half of 1% alcohol at 15 cents a stein, and Ruth declaring, “I’d give a year of my life if I can hit a home run in this first game in this new ballpark.”
Of course, he did—off Howard Ehmke, the Boston pitcher who later would be credited with developing and manufacturing the first infield tarp.
Ruth was such a draw and the opener such a chaotic scene that 6,000 people hopped from the stands into right field to stand behind Ruth for the top of the ninth inning. Umpires decided to play on with the fans on the field. The Red Sox went down 1-2-3 in the ninth, including one lineout to Ruth and his 6,000 friends in right field.
No one crashed the field this week, but Ohtani is such a draw that the Yankees oddly stocked their team store at the stadium with Ohtani jerseys. (Teams keep all proceeds from in-stadium sales; off-premises licensed merchandise is split among the 30 clubs.)
Before the game Tuesday, Ohtani took the unusual step of taking batting practice on the field, the first time he had done so since the WBC in Miami.
“Hey,” manager Phil Nevin said to him, “why are you taking BP on the field?”
Ohtani, who had not homered in a week, deadpanned, “I’ve got to try to remember what it feels like to hit a home run.”
Nevin, a former coach with the Yankees, pointed to the batter’s eye in center field.
“That’s where [Giancarlo] Stanton hits ’em,” he said.
“That’s all he’s got?” Ohtani scoffed.
Ohtani took a round of BP with what Nevin estimated was between 10 and 15 swings.
“Eight to nine of them were way out,” Nevin says. “He went over where Stanton hit them. Way over. He hit them over the cameras on top of the batter’s eye. I’ve seen a lot of batting practice in this ballpark. I’ve never seen anybody hit them where Sho was hitting them. Never.
“And then he goes out and hits a home run on his first swing of the game.”
Of course. A hundred years after Ruth took Ehmke deep to right field, Ohtani took Clarke Schmidt deep to right field.
But every step forward for the Angels typically is followed by a step back, which is what Wednesday wrought. Ohtani and Trout struck out a combined five times with runners on base. The bullpen fell to 5–8. The Angels are better than the 89-loss team of a year ago, but Rendon has yet to show any power and the lineup, though fortified with role players, lacks depth.
As much as Ohtani is a global sensation who doubled his Instagram followers to four million during the WBC (match those followers, Babe!), he and his future remain largely a mystery in the U.S. When he left Japan to sign as a free agent, he first ruled out the major market teams on the East Coast. Without a DH in the NL then, he largely was left to choose from among the Angels and Mariners to be a two-way player. We don’t know what preferences he harbors now.
We do know his value is something in the neighborhood of $50 million a year. At age 28, and based on OPS and ERA, he is a combination of Pete Alonso and Julio Urías in one player. What does Ohtani want? What makes him tick? Nevin told a story that provides some insight.
On Monday, Ohtani’s start on the mound at Fenway Park was cut short by a rain delay, no doubt spoiling the fun not only on Patriots’ Day in Boston but also on Ohtani Day in Oshu, his hometown, which is celebrated on the 17th day of every month. Led by the Shohei Ohtani Hometown Cheering Team, or Ōendan, most of the town decks out in Ohtani gear that day.
Even before the rain had stopped and Ehmke’s legacy invention was pulled off the infield, Ohtani was in the tunnel to the clubhouse figuring his work and sleep schedule for the next week. He told Nevin he could start Friday against Kansas City.
“He had it all worked out, not only for himself but why other [pitching] matchups made sense,” Nevin says. “He had it all planned out for the next two weeks. He’s probably the smartest baseball player I’ve ever been around.”
And that, Nevin says, is the window into what Ohtani wants. He wants something he has never experienced with the Angels.
“All that he does and all that he wants is about one thing,” Nevin says. “He wants to win.”
