Shohei Ohtani didn’t construct this place. It solely feels that means. Dodger Stadium existed lengthy earlier than he was born and figures to stay a beacon tucked within the canyons of Chavez Ravine lengthy after his profession ends. However the ballpark has, in its 63rd yr, been remade in his picture. New outfield billboards hawk Japanese spirits and Japanese probiotics and Japanese airways. Pregame excursions are flooded with guests from overseas carrying crisp No. 17 jerseys. When the Dodgers handed out an Ohtani bobblehead, the throng sprawling down Vin Scully Boulevard assembled 10 hours earlier than first pitch.
In his first season as a Dodger, Ohtani established himself as the middle of the franchise’s universe. He thrived beneath the highlight of his 10-year, $700 million contract. His enhance to the monetary backside line made staff officers giddy — “properly past what we imagined,” staff president Stan Kasten mentioned. He compartmentalized after a stunning betrayal from his closest confidant and responded with a historic offensive season. He has accomplished every little thing besides the factor by which this complete endeavor will probably be judged: Win a championship.
“It’s going to essentially take a look at his persistence and self-discipline,” Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts informed The Athletic the day earlier than the staff clinched its twelfth consecutive postseason berth final week. “Understanding that he’s waited his whole life, primarily, to be within the major-league postseason. It’s going to be fascinating to observe.”
Ohtani isn’t any stranger to exterior obsession. Some in Japan describe him as “kanpeki na hito,” which roughly interprets to “the proper individual.” The Dodgers don’t appear to disagree. Roberts has recommended he could develop into the best participant within the historical past of baseball. “Considered one of one,” first-base coach Clayton McCullough known as him. “I don’t see how there’s anyone extra gifted who has ever performed this recreation than him,” teammate Kiké Hernández mentioned. Added reliever Daniel Hudson, “I really feel fairly fortunate to have a front-row seat for him each evening.”
When Ohtani seems at Dodger Stadium, conversations stop, eyeballs widen and cameras click on. One afternoon in early September, Ohtani climbed the dugout steps and walked into the outfield. He was trailed by his interpreter, Will Ireton, and a member of the coaching workers. A flock of 10 reporters hustled down the left-field line and aimed their lenses to report Ohtani finishing the mundane act of getting a catch. As a result of no act dedicated by Ohtani may be thought-about inconsequential, not as he strikes nearer towards pitching once more. The Dodgers had insisted Ohtani wouldn’t take the mound in 2024 as he recovered from elbow surgical procedure — at the very least till Roberts upgraded the aim this month from inconceivable to inconceivable. As Roberts informed MLB Community radio, “It will be storybook.”
It’s the kind of story that solely Ohtani may write.
For the previous 4 years, he has bent the sport of baseball to his will. Even in 2024, regardless of being unable to showcase his two-way abilities, he broke limitations. Recognizing the additional time on his fingers, he targeting working the bases. In August he celebrated turning into solely the sixth participant to hit 40 residence runs and steal 40 bases in the identical season by throwing a bullpen session the subsequent afternoon. Twenty-eight days later, he grew to become the constitution member of the 50-50 membership, throughout a recreation during which he authored probably the most productive offensive days in baseball historical past. In November, he may develop into the primary designated hitter to gather an MVP trophy.
The last word triumph, the validation of this partnership between trail-blazing participant and storied franchise, would require extra heroics from Ohtani. The Dodgers are more likely to win the Nationwide League West however is not going to accumulate 100 victories for the primary time in a full season since 2018. Accidents wrecked the beginning rotation. There will probably be much more strain on the offense — the unit led, each actually and figuratively, by Ohtani.
Ohtani has already redefined the general public’s understanding of the restrictions of athletic efficiency. Can he change the postseason fortunes of the Dodgers? Or will he fall sufferer to the identical October spells which have hounded baseball’s mannequin franchise?
The reply could not rely upon whether or not Ohtani can greatest the competitors. It could rely upon whether or not Ohtani may be one of the best model of himself.
Within the hours earlier than the largest recreation of his life, Shohei Ohtani gathered his teammates round him. The lads of Samurai Japan clapped as he took the ground inside the house clubhouse at loanDepot Park in Miami. Because the group ready to face Staff USA within the finals of the 2023 World Baseball Traditional, Ohtani informed his countrymen they wanted to stow their reverence for his or her opponents, a group of big-league All-Stars taking part in on the sport’s highest degree.
“When you admire them,” he mentioned, “you possibly can’t surpass them. We got here right here to surpass them, to achieve the highest.”
Ohtani hoisted his staff to the summit. After spending the primary eight innings because the designated hitter, he trotted to the bullpen to heat up for the ninth. He inherited a one-run lead and a batting order kissed by serendipity: The hitter due up third was Angels teammate Mike Trout, the person Ohtani had supplanted as the game’s supreme expertise. The final pitch of the match was an 87-mph slider that swept throughout the guts of the plate and simply beneath the arc of Trout’s bat.
Ohtani chucked his glove, unfold his arms and roared. He known as the victory “one of the best second of my life.” Upon returning to Angels camp, he tried to mission the way it would possibly really feel to achieve the MLB postseason. “The environment was like, ‘Now this is baseball,’” Ohtani informed reporters. “Truthfully, I haven’t been to the World Collection. So I can’t even think about.”
Shohei Ohtani exulted after recording the ultimate out of the World Baseball Traditional. (Eric Espada / Getty Photos)
The Angels by no means offered him a chance to smell a wild card, not to mention the World Collection. In Ohtani’s six seasons in Anaheim, the membership by no means received greater than 80 video games. The 2023 season encapsulated the futility with a 17-39 collapse after July. Unable to pitch after damaging his proper elbow, Ohtani cleared out his locker in the course of September, left the staff and underwent surgical procedure. Free company beckoned.
In early December, Ohtani met with Dodgers officers at Dodger Stadium. Staff chairman Mark Walter woke up Ohtani’s aggressive spirit when the proprietor known as his tenure working the membership, which included perpetual postseason berths however just one championship, a failure. Ohtani stood within the dugout and gazed upon the 56,000-seat stadium, with the hills of Chavez Ravine past the outfield partitions, the scenic continuum from the times of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale to Kirk Gibson and Orel Hershiser to Clayton Kershaw, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
Per week later, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman acquired a textual content from Nez Balelo, Ohtani’s agent from CAA: “You bought him. Shohei’s a Dodger.” The contract was closely deferred in order that Ohtani would solely be paid $2 million yearly throughout his 10 seasons. The deal kicked off a $1.2 billion spending spree including Orix Buffaloes ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto and gifted however fragile right-hander Tyler Glasnow. The franchise ready itself for a banner season: A proliferation of recent sponsorships, a re-energized fanbase able to pack the ballpark and a staff projected to demolish the remainder of the Nationwide League.
The giddiness ended hours earlier than the season’s first recreation.
On his third evening in Seoul, Kasten couldn’t sleep. The jet lag from the 14-hour flight to South Korea for the season-opening sequence towards San Diego had not but pale. On March 19, his cellphone buzzed round 3 a.m.
“When you’re up,” the message from Walter learn, as Kasten recalled, “name me.”
Walter had acquired phrase there is likely to be a scandal brewing round Ohtani. The staff was caught off guard, Kasten mentioned. The preliminary particulars have been alarming: A federal investigation right into a Southern California bookmaker had turned up Ohtani’s identify connected to wire transfers value thousands and thousands of {dollars}.
“For six to 12 hours, I wasn’t positive the place we have been,” Kasten mentioned. “Was all of this going to go away? Like, all of this?”
Dodgers officers spent the next day scrambling. The maelstrom swirled round Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s interpreter since becoming a member of the Angels in 2018. Mizuhara operated as greater than a piece colleague. He was thought-about Ohtani’s shut good friend and had develop into one thing of a caretaker, with entry to the worldwide star’s financial institution accounts. The management permitted Mizuhara to commit, as he later admitted in courtroom, a large swindle. Within the second, although, Mizuhara tried one other con. With the season about to start that evening, Mizuhara informed ESPN he had accrued playing money owed with out Ohtani’s data and finally implored his good friend to pay them off. The Dodgers accepted Mizuhara’s preliminary story.
That evening, after an Opening Day victory, Walter known as a staff assembly. Friedman knowledgeable the group that Ohtani had acted as a Good Samaritan to assist his good friend. Mizuhara known as himself a playing addict and apologized. When Mizuhara spoke, nobody translated for Ohtani. Ohtani would later say he thought “one thing was amiss.”
Ohtani met with Mizuhara again on the staff lodge. Mizuhara confessed to the fraud. A kinetic chain of panic adopted. A disaster communications spokesman informed ESPN that Mizuhara’s preliminary story was not credible. Mizuhara admitted to the outlet that he had lied. The Dodgers fired him. Within the morning, they convened the staff once more.
“We needed to now go to all of the gamers at breakfast, who we had 9 hours earlier informed this story, and we needed to say, ‘Cancel every little thing we mentioned,’” Kasten mentioned. “And so they all go, ‘OK, what the f—?’”
Amid the confusion, Ohtani maintained his composure. “The following day, he confirmed as much as the sphere, and it was like nothing was happening,” Hernández mentioned. “To me, that was like, ‘Wow. This man. Who’re you, man? Is that this regular?’”
It took time to suss every little thing out. At a information convention in Los Angeles on March 25, Ohtani insisted he had “by no means wager on baseball or another sport” and known as himself “past shocked.” Mizuhara finally admitted to stealing $17 million from Ohtani and pleaded responsible to financial institution fraud and tax fraud, and is scheduled to be sentenced in December. He faces as much as 33 years in jail.
Ippei Mizuhara departing federal courtroom. (Frederic J. Brown / AFP through Getty Photos)
The Dodgers changed Mizuhara with Will Ireton, a longtime worker who had beforehand labored with Kenta Maeda. Members of the group have recommended Ohtani seems extra snug with them now that Mizuhara, who acted as a buffer, is gone. Ohtani appeared unfazed on the sphere: He posted a 1.017 OPS with seven homers within the season’s first month and by no means slowed down.
And the scandal didn’t diminish Ohtani’s status or money-making capability. Dodger Stadium leads the game in attendance but once more and no membership attracts extra followers on the street. The staff spent the spring and summer time asserting new partnerships. Ohtani conducts all of his interviews in entrance of a makeshift backdrop that includes ads for All Nippon Airways, Daiso, Toyo Tires and Walter’s Guggenheim Companions. The Dodgers will open the 2025 season towards the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo. The inflow of curiosity from Japanese sponsors has been “well past something we imagined, when it comes to curiosity,” Kasten mentioned.
Again in January, weeks after he signed with the Dodgers, Ohtani visited Dodger Stadium to check his surgically-repaired proper elbow within the batting cage. As Ohtani took hacks off a tee, vice chairman of participant efficiency Brandon McDaniel monitored the speed of every swing. The information seemed metronomic, the product of a participant with exact management of his limbs, even in a wounded state. “It’s like 70 mph, 70, 70, 71, 71, 71,” McDaniel mentioned. “It’s like he is aware of precisely the place he’s at in house.”
That was one of many first inklings McDaniel had about what he known as Ohtani’s “brain-to-body connection,” his will to athletic energy. “It’s nearly like when he places his thoughts to one thing, he’s going to make it occur,” McDaniel mentioned.
Earlier than Ohtani joined the Dodgers, staff officers didn’t take into account him an adroit base runner. His jumps have been substandard and his strategy was unrefined. But the bodily instruments have been there: Dodgers officers discovered that Ohtani mixed fast-twitch explosiveness with energy earned on the squat rack. (Because the yr progressed, a number of Dodgers couldn’t assist however discover, when congratulating Ohtani after his varied feats, the firmness of his bottom.) In spring coaching, McCullough, the working recreation coordinator, observed Ohtani refining his acceleration and method with energy coach Travis Smith. Unable to pitch, Ohtani acknowledged he would have power to burn. “He was taking a look at this yr as a chance to be extra aggressive,” McCullough mentioned.
The Dodgers didn’t take into account Shohei Ohtani to be an elite base runner till seeing him in motion this season. (Michael Owens / Getty Photos)
Ohtani obsesses over larceny in 90-foot increments. He has solely been caught 4 instances all season. On the primary day of every sequence, McCullough conveys to the hitters big-picture ideas about working towards the opposing staff. Then he sits with Ohtani and Ireton to interrupt down every pitcher. Then Ohtani pulls out his iPad. “He’s actually wanting on the facet view of the pitcher,” Hernández mentioned. “He’s making an attempt to get his timing and little ideas that he can get.”
As Ohtani joined the 40-40 membership and inaugurated the 50-50 membership, he continued to rehabilitate his elbow. He began throwing bullpen classes in August. He may face hitters in October, if not sooner. He was noncommittal when requested if he may pitch within the postseason. “I’m undecided,” he mentioned final week. If the door isn’t precisely open, Ohtani has prevented it from closing.
“It’s been actually spectacular to see the diligence,” Kershaw mentioned. “Every single day, you’ve obtained to consider throwing. You’ve obtained to consider hitting. You’ve obtained to take a look at pitchers to see when you can steal off them. You’ve obtained to do hitters’ conferences. You’ve obtained to consider making an attempt to throw a curveball. It’s simply a lot. And he does all of it, rather well.”
To Roberts, Ohtani will face a crossroads in October.
“I believe it might go considered one of two methods,” the supervisor mentioned.
One path, Roberts defined, is the route navigated by former Dodgers Corey Seager and Cody Bellinger in 2017. Within the World Collection, Houston preyed upon the overeagerness of the duo, who couldn’t acknowledge that Astros pitchers wouldn’t problem them within the strike zone. The opposite path is the one Seager took in World Collection MVP performances for the Dodgers in 2020 and the Texas Rangers in 2023. Seager discovered to regulate his at-bats, draw the opponent into his desired zone and take walks if the pitcher refused to interact.
Roberts chuckled.
“My hope” for Ohtani, he mentioned, “is actually the latter.”
Regardless of his penchant for the dramatic, Ohtani has been least efficient in 2024 throughout the highest-leverage moments. He entered final weekend’s sequence towards Colorado batting .250 with an .812 OPS with runners in scoring place, 50 factors of batting common and practically 200 factors of OPS under his season averages. Some Dodgers officers, as Angels officers did earlier than them, famous that Ohtani’s strategy didn’t usually waver. Each swing was designed for optimum injury quite than utmost effectiveness.
In October, Roberts expects opponents to attempt to exploit Ohtani’s zeal to astound on this new stage. Roberts plans to satisfy with Ohtani earlier than the postseason. “I’m going to present him the reply key,” Roberts mentioned. He needs Ohtani to study from the instance of Seager quite than endure by means of related rising pains. In opposition to elite opponents, Roberts intends to remind Ohtani, selectivity issues as a lot as aggression.
“He’s one of the best hitter on the planet,” Roberts mentioned. “Within the postseason, individuals are going to take their probabilities with the blokes behind him — even when it’s Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.”
Betts and Freeman may solely gawk at Ohtani after a day like final Thursday in Miami, when Ohtani delivered six hits in six at-bats, 10 RBIs, homers No. 49, 50 and 51, plus stolen bases No. 50 and 51. “It was simply unexplainable to witness historical past like that,” Betts mentioned.
Shohei Ohtani was celebrated in Miami after turning into the constitution member of the 50-50 membership on Sept. 19. (The Yomiuri Shimbun through AP Photos )
The victory clinched a postseason berth — a routine prevalence for the Dodgers, a primary for Ohtani. It got here close to the top of a difficult marketing campaign for the perennial overlords of the Nationwide League West. The Dodgers by no means ran away with the division. Betts broke his hand in June, missed two months and moved out of the leadoff spot to make room for Ohtani. (“No matter Shohei says goes,” Betts mentioned in August.) Yamamoto harm his shoulder, then returned in September, however earlier this month Glasnow suffered a season-ending elbow sprain.
The vibes haven’t all the time been nice. Roberts conceded that the strain of being the Dodgers, the place something lower than a championship may be thought-about a disappointment, saps pleasure out of the chase. Betts agreed. “Persons are going to mess up, however it shouldn’t be the top of the world,” he mentioned earlier this month. “The expectations positioned on us make it the top of the world.”
But Ohtani signed up for that burden as a result of he had grown uninterested in languishing amidst mediocrity. He expressed his gratitude throughout a champagne toast in Miami. Then he and Ireton stood in entrance of the advertisement-laden backdrop to take questions from three dozen reporters. Somebody requested about October. No lively participant has appeared in additional video games than Ohtani with out ever collaborating within the postseason. That may quickly change. “My aim has all the time been to make it to the playoffs,” Ohtani mentioned. “It’s one thing that I’ve actually labored exhausting (for), and I’m actually pleased to have the ability to make it. Now my aim is to ship in a playoff scenario.”
Again within the clubhouse, the celebration was subdued. An array of plastic flutes sat half-full subsequent to some bottles of Veuve Clicquot. The tv flashed to footage recorded earlier than a recreation earlier within the week, a reminder of the inconceivable dream that will solely be inconceivable. On the display, Ohtani occupied a bullpen mound.
He was pitching.
(Illustration by Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Getty; Rob Leiter / MLB Photographs, Justin Casterline, Chris Coduto, Katelyn Mulcahy, Ric Tapia / Icon Sportswire)
