Subscribe
Follow Us
This past offseason, Shohei Ohtani entered free agency and triggered a bidding war of historic proportions. One would think that the Los Angeles Angels would go balls to the wall and keep him at all costs after refusing to trade him away last season despite falling off the pace in the playoff race, but in the end, it was the Angels' crosstown rival, Los Angeles Dodgers, that managed to secure Ohtani's services on a record-setting 10-year, $700 million deal.
Now, Ohtani is set to return to Angel Stadium in Anaheim ahead of the Dodgers' two-game set against the Angels. This will mark the first time that the 30-year-old Japanese international will be returning to his old stomping grounds as a member of the opposition, so the hullabaloo surrounding these games is ratcheting up.
Ahead of Shohei Ohtani's return to his MLB home from 2018 to 2023, Jack Harris of the LA Times asked him if his overall thoughts on the Angels' decision not to match the Dodgers' offer, as well as what his decision would have been in the end had his old ballclub decided to break the bank and keep him.
“Rather than think about what the Angels did or didn't do, I'm grateful for the teams that evaluated me highly,” Ohtani said in his native tongue. “In reality, I wasn't made an offer [by the Angels], so I can't say [if I would have stayed]. In reality, I'm doing my best with the goal of winning the World Series. I think I'm fine with that.”
Indeed, there are no indications at all that Shohei Ohtani made the wrong decision to sign with the Dodgers. The Dodgers franchise has been one of the most well-run over the past decade or so, as they have always been part of the World Series conversation — something that cannot be said for the Angels despite fielding the services of two of the greatest players of this generation in Ohtani and Mike Trout.
Ohtani has made it clear in the past that one of his main goals as a professional baseball player is to win the World Series. Being with the Dodgers gives him a very good chance at achieving his goal. And the Angels simply made his decision to walk away that much easier by not putting their best foot forward in contract negotiations.
Shohei Ohtani has been every bit as good as advertised for the Dodgers
One of the main assets of Shohei Ohtani's game that made him the proud owner of the most expensive contract in the history of professional sports is his ability to be a star on both the hitting and pitching side of baseball. That makes him quite the outlier talent, a player who's an MVP-caliber player even though you take away one side of the game from him.
Ohtani had to give up pitching for the entirety of the 2024 season after tearing a ligament in his elbow, and yet he has still remained one of the most valuable players in the entire MLB thanks to his elite production both on the plate and on the basepaths.
On the season, Ohtani has hit 44 home runs and driven in 98 runs, while stealing a career-high 43 bases. He is currently posting the second-best OPS of his career, at .991, and he's striking out less often than he has throughout his career. Imagine just how much more valuable he'll be for the Dodgers once he returns to the mound next season.
