Dodgers fans close your eyes, we're about to make the case for Shohei Ohtani to become a full-time hitter. It'd be a difficult pill to swallow after paying him $700 million to be their ace and their best hitter. However, who knows how much Ohtani could grow as a hitter if he put all his energy into it?
It worked for Babe Ruth, who reached his full potential when he stopped pitching. We already know that Ohtani is baseball's best hitter, and he could be even better if he stopped trying to pitch.
Ruth stopped pitching full-time in 1919. He made some spot-starts in various years after that, but it was a different era, and he could do that better than today's players. Ruth was a pitcher for six seasons with the Boston Red Sox. He had a slash line of .308/.413/.568, with 49 home runs and 224 RBIs. He didn't play in many games like Ohtani when he'd be an outfielder or designated hitter on his off-days, but the slash lines show that his focus wasn't on hitting.
The Yankees stopped using Ruth as a pitcher, and his offensive ceiling shone through. He owned a .349/.484/.711 slash line with 659 home runs and 1978 RBIs over 15 seasons. It gets murky when comparing players from different eras, but Shohei is such a rare phenomenon that we have no choice but to compare him to Ruth.
We've never seen any other players dominate on both sides of baseball like Shohei and Ruth have done. The only question is whether Ohtani will ever pitch again after two serious injuries to his throwing arm.
Shohei Ohtani's arm issues
Ohtani's injury issues began early in his MLB career. The Los Angeles Angels placed him on the injured list on June 8th in his rookie season with a Grade 2 UCL sprain in his right elbow. Doctors gave him platelet-rich plasma and stem-cell injections to treat it, and he returned as a hitter on July 2nd. He pitched one more game in September but left after two innings with a tight back and sore finger.
The Angels revealed that Ohtani would need Tommy John surgery at the end of the season after an MRI showed new damage. Ohtani returned the following season as strictly a batter, and the COVID-19 pandemic gave him an extra break the following season.
July 26 2020, marked his first pitching appearance since September 2018. After two starts, another flexor strain was found in his right elbow and they shut him down as a pitcher for the rest of the season.
Ohtani's breakout came in 2021 when he won his first American League MVP award. A revamped offseason training regimen helped him stay healthy and reach another level with his performance. Ohtani stayed healthy until August 2023 when doctors discovered another UCL tear in his right elbow. He had another surgery on September 19 2023, to address the tear, but his season ended with his second MVP award.
Ohtani won't pitch for the Dodgers in 2024 but plans to return at some point during his ten-year contract.
Can Ohtani grow as a hitter?
Babe Ruth's average climbed by 41 points, and he hit 659 home runs and 1978 RBIs after retiring as a pitcher. Ohtani likely won't play 15 good seasons like Ruth did if he stopped pitching right now, so it's hard to predict Shohei's career in sync with Ruth's. Babe was 25 when he stopped pitching, whereas Ohtani is 30.
Let's assume that Ohtani's career average climbed by 41 points. He'd be a .320 hitter, and his power numbers would likely increase like Ruth's. Therefore, let's predict he would hit approximately 45 home runs for all ten years of his contract with the Dodgers. It'd give him roughly 650 home runs in his career. Would these numbers be enough for Dodgers fans to be happy if they never saw Shohei pitch again?
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