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Baseball fans have been dealing with a mix of emotions since Shohei Ohtani signed a massive deal to join the Los Angeles Dodgers. As if the Dodgers needed another megastar on their roster. But there was also relief that Ohtani ditched the moribund franchise that is the Los Angeles Angels.
However, Ohtani, in his first comments since jumping ship from one Los Angeles baseball team to another, took the high road in describing his time with the Angels. “It was a fun ride. A great ride. I’ll never forget all the memories I had,” Ohtani said, courtesy of The Athletic's Sam Blum.
Ohtani also made sure to thank the Angels as an organization, although it's unclear what this gratitude was aimed at. While employing two of the best baseball players on the planet in Ohtani and Mike Trout, the Angels squandered years of Hall of Fame talent in a directionless stumble.
Ohtani's Dodgers embrace
In six seasons, Ohtani has not played a single postseason game with the Angels. The team never even finished higher than third in the AL West in those seasons.
This, despite Ohtani winning the 2018 AL Rookie of the Year award, winning two MVP awards, and making three All-Star teams.
Over that same span of time, the Dodgers came in first place five times, with one second-place finish. They won a World Series, lost another, and made another NLCS appearance.
Ohtani gets to leave an Angels team that, even with MLB's expanded playoff format in recent years, could not play meaningful games in October, to join a Dodgers team that does so as a matter of course.
All that, and he doesn't even have to move cities.
