SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Shohei Ohtani show has reached the humdrum stage here in spring training.
During the second full week of Cactus League games, Ohtani started as the Angels’ designated hitter for the fourth time. He went 0–2 with a walk and two strikeouts against the D-backs at Salt River Fields. His spring batting numbers are now 1–11 with three walks and four Ks. The hit — an RBI single — came on Feb. 26 against the Padres in Peoria Stadium. Seemingly a light year ago.
Ohtani whiffed both times swinging on curveballs thrown by Arizona right-hander Zack Godley, one of the best big-league pitcher he has so far faced. On Wednesday, he faced Clayton Kershaw with the same lack of success. Godley emerged last year as a credible back of the rotation starter with an 8–9 record and 3.37 ERA in 25 starts after Shelby Miller went down because of an elbow injury in April and underwent Tommy John ligament replacement surgery.
“I mean the swings are fine. It’s just going to take some timing,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said about Ohtani after his team’s 5–4 loss. “You know, seeing the ball. It’s going to take some at bats. But I think he’s very comfortable in the batter’s box.”
The fact that the Angels are now slow-walking the 23-year-old Ohtani as both a pitcher and hitter is now obvious. His next mound start will be on Friday in another “B” game, this time against the Tijuana Toros, a Triple-A club in the Mexican League, this time at Tempe Diablo Stadium. That means he will not have faced viable big-league hitters since he was knocked around by seven Brewers batters in his first start on Feb. 24.
His last start this past Friday was also in a “B” game against a squad of Milwaukee minor leaguers. He struck out eight, all the outs he recorded, allowing two runs on four hits. But the mitigating factor is not one of those players is ticketed for opening day in the Major Leagues.
Next time out he’ll be facing a squad of Mexican Leaguers while the regular Angels meet the Cubs at Sloan Park in nearby Mesa.
Ohtani’s hitting in games two or three times a week. He threw a bullpen session on Wednesday and Scioscia had him batting seventh in the lineup as the DH at Tempe vs. the Dodgers. He was 0–2, grounding into a double play and watching a Kershaw breaking ball on the outside corner for a called third strike. Welcome to the bigs.
Asked if he was excited to face Ohtani, Kershaw said:
“I could care less now. He didn’t pick us. Good luck to him.”
Take note, opening night for the Angels is at Oakland on March 29, a mere 22 days away.
“Right now, we are taking that [slow walk] approach,” Scioscia said. “Like I said the other day, at some point you’ve got to take the water wings off and throw guys into the deep end. He will face some Major League hitters at some point.”
The fact that the Ohtani story has now become commonplace couldn’t have been illustrated better by the absence on Tuesday of many in the contingent of about 200 Japanese media, which found more compelling stories elsewhere.
Yu Darvish made his first start for the Cubs against the Dodgers at Sloan, and meanwhile many awaited the arrival of Ichiro Suzuki at Mariners camp in Peoria. Ichiro, the most significant player to ever come over from Japan and certain future Hall of Famer, has reportedly signed a one-year contract with Seattle. The M’s were his big-league home for the first 11-plus years of his 17-year career in the U.S. Ichiro’s locker was appointed, but by late afternoon the great lefty swinger with 3,080 hits had not arrived.
Ohtani came over from Japan after five seasons as a sensational two-way player for the Nippon-Ham Fighters, the first to attempt hitting and pitching regularly in big league games since Babe Ruth almost 100 years ago. But his performance both on the mound and at the plate hasn’t been as brilliant as advertised.
Instead, Ohtani looks more like any other young player trying to make a big-league club. He’s a non-roster player in camp who could very well wind up starting the season in the minor leagues if his performance doesn’t markedly improve in the next three weeks.
No one expects that to happen, but right now he’s certainly no more than humdrum.
“I think you can say that about everybody,” Scioscia said. “Every player. Shohei is no different. It’s going to take some at bats. Pitchers go through some dead arm. Hitters just go through some times when they’re not in sync. That’s all part of the spring and you need some [work] to go through all that.”
No one else in any spring camp has to go through both. Will the Dude abide? Watch this space.
Ohtani hasn’t risen to the occasion; frozen by Kershaw was originally published in Boomskie on Baseball on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
