By Reid Coleman

A total of only 72 Japanese players have ever played in a Major League Baseball, and only one player in all of baseball has ever made the MLB All-Star Game as both a hitter and a pitcher. At 27 years old, 6’4”, and 210 lbs., his name is Shohei Ohtani. 

Ohtani grew up in Japan in the small, rural town of Oshu, in a community full of rice fields and few industrial buildings. Here, Ohtani went to Hanamaki Higashi High School, where he fell in love with the game of baseball, and eventually, scouts began to fall in love with him. It was at Higashi when Ohtani first caught the attention of MLB scouts when he recorded a pitch of 99 mph. For reference, the average speed of an MLB pitch during the 2020 season was 93.7 mph. A pitch of 99 mph for a high school baseball player was unbelievable. 

Out of high school, with scouts drooling over him, Ohtani declared that he would bypass the NPB, the Nippon Professional Baseball League, the highest professional baseball league in Japan, and try to go directly to the MLB. This move was unheard of for a Japanese player, yet it was expected for the highly touted Ohtani. The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters of the NPB had other plans, though, and directly after Ohtani graduated high school, the Fighters began to recruit him with a barrage of messages, presentations, and projections for him as a player. Their main recruiting point to Ohtani was that he would be a rare two-way player for the Fighters, a player who could both pitch and hit very well. After this extreme recruitment, Ohtani shockingly decided to change his mind and sign with the Fighters of the NPB in 2012. 

With the Fighters in Japan, Ohtani played exceptionally well, and through five years with the team, he had amassed a win percentage of .737 as a pitcher, along with an ERA (Earned Run Average) of 2.52. For anyone who does not know baseball well, an ERA of between three and four is considered above average, while anything under a three is considered exceptional. Ohtani was a premier prospect, and after his fifth year with the Fighters, he finally decided to join the MLB, signing with the Los Angeles Angels in 2018. 

Ohtani pitching for the Los Angeles Angels. Photo credit: New York Times.

With the Angels, his first year, Ohtani played up to his expectations and was named the American League Rookie of the Year, However, in 2019 and 2020, Ohtani became plagued with injuries, and the Angels had to limit his playing time. With limited playing time, Ohtani never seemed to find his groove and only managed to pitch a combined two games throughout both seasons. 

So what did Ohtani do after the 2020 season? He completely changed his diet and exercise regimen, while adopting a more relaxed mindset to prepare for a strenuous season as both a pitcher and a hitter, so the Angels would no longer have to limit his usage. And the plan worked. 

So far, through 157 games of the MLB season, Ohtani has been one of the most lethal pitchers in the MLB, with a 9-2 record, an 81% win rate, and an excellent ERA of 3.36. But what makes Ohtani so special is that while being a top-tier pitcher, he has also become only the second player ever in MLB history with 45+ home runs, 20+ stolen bases, and 6+ triples in a season. 

According to MLB fanatic Patrick Brennan (‘22), “It has been unbelievable watching Shohei Ohtani play this season as both a hitter and a pitcher, and I have actually become an Angels fan simply because I love watching Ohtani play.”

In fact, Ohtani, who plays nearly every game as a hitter, along with pitching once every five to seven days, has played so much that by the end of the season, he is projected to have played about 1.5 seasons worth of time on the field. If he continues on this path, he will pass Babe Ruth as the most two-way player in all of MLB history. 

Collegiate baseball player Eric McDaniel (‘22) thinks that because of Ohtani’s efficiency as a two-way player, “he has altered the future of the MLB forever, because more players will try to be like him.”