ANAHEIM, Calif. — For the first time since Shohei Ohtani joined the major leagues, the two-time MVP played meaningful September baseball Tuesday at Angel Stadium.
It took a different uniform to make that possible.
For six years, Ohtani provided the Angels with everything he had, defying the limits of what was imaginable. They gave him the chance to play both ways, and he rewarded them immediately in his stateside debut, hitting 51% better than league average while registering a 3.31 ERA on the mound as a 23-year-old sensation before his arm gave way.
Ohtani’s Rookie of the Year season ended with Tommy John surgery and an 80-82 record for his Angels club. He eventually came back even better; the inept franchise he played for never did.
By 2021, Ohtani was inspiring awe again as a two-way sensation. He won his first MVP award, followed that up by finishing second in MVP voting and fourth in Cy Young voting in 2022, then ended last season with another MVP trophy — and another major elbow procedure. After his dazzling debut year, the Angels never won 80 games again, never finished better than third place in the division and never surrounded the most gifted player in baseball with the talent that could get him to the sport’s biggest stage.
Their failed last-ditch effort last year, adding at the deadline in hopes of capitalizing in Ohtani’s contract year, fizzled out quickly. The Angels went 8-19 in August and cratered as Ohtani tore his UCL again. Most of their additions were placed on waivers before month’s end to lessen the financial burden. Then they let the latest coming of Babe Ruth walk.
The Angels were seemingly among the finalists in the sweepstakes to get Ohtani this offseason, but they never matched the 10-year, $700 million deal the Dodgers and other clubs were willing to provide.
“I’m just thankful and grateful for the teams that ended up offering a contract because that’s a reflection of what they think about me,” Ohtani told reporters through interpreter Will Ireton ahead of his return to Anaheim this week.
Would Ohtani have stayed if the Angels offered?
“It’s hard to tell,” he said. “Obviously the offer did not come to fruition, so it’s really a situation where it was more of an ‘if they did’ situation, so I can’t really speak on that.”
Shohei Ohtani gets ovation in first at-bat at Angel Stadium since leaving
Maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that Tuesday was not a teary-eyed spectacle.
Exactly one year to the day of Ohtani’s final appearance in an Angels uniform, Ohtani was back at Angel Stadium for his 352nd game at the venue and his first as a visitor in a regular-season game. The Angels had already welcomed him with a tribute video back in March, when he played in the exhibition Freeway Series. This time, all that awaited the best thing to happen to their franchise over the past six years was a graphic displaying his accomplishments as Ohtani stepped to the plate for the first time.
He gave a half hug to catcher Logan O’Hoppe, who, along with home plate umpire Brock Ballou, afforded Ohtani the chance to soak in the moment if he wanted to take an elongated pause. But there was no lengthy stoppage. No need to waste time surveying the scene or taking off his helmet to a half empty stadium, which provided him with a respectful but tame standing ovation. He was ready to hit.
Ohtani gave a respectful nod to Ballou, acknowledging the time he was granted, then peered in toward starter Reid Detmers.
“It’s just how he’s wired,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I think some people are pretty emotional about things, and some people are very kind of unemotional. He’s just simplistic in that sense. It’s a part of his past and a significant part of his life, but I dont think it’s something that he continues to think through. I think he’s more of a forward-thinking person.”
That’s not to say his former club meant nothing to him.
A day before his return, Ohtani described Anaheim as “a special place,” and he said he looked forward to returning to the ballpark and its fans. There’s a part of him that believes if he had stayed healthy through his tenure, maybe the results would have been different.
But this chapter of his story is clearly behind him.
Roberts thought that Tuesday’s reunion was more about closure for Angels fans than for him.
“I think Shohei has certainly, rightfully, has moved on,” Roberts said. “He does a great job, like I’ve talked about, of separating real life from work, but I think this moment is something that people have looked forward to.”
As the game progressed, the stadium began to fill. Attendance grew to 44,731 fans — the highest mark of another dismal Angels season — as Dodger fans made the short trip south. The No. 17 jerseys in the crowd were mostly blue. A light “M-V-P” chant welcomed Ohtani his first time up. Those chants grew louder after he hit an RBI triple to tie the game in the third inning.
“As a player, you feel very supported and appreciative of all the fans that are in front of me, in front of the team,” Ohtani said. “It makes a difference that they’re out here.”
This was what he signed up for.
The Angels are in last place, all but assured to miss the postseason for the 10th straight year. The Dodgers, meanwhile, have the best record in baseball and are cruising toward their 12th straight playoff appearance.
As he weighed his options this winter, Ohtani said winning championships was most important to him. While some felt his decision to join the Dodgers — who had wanted him for more than a decade — was a foregone conclusion, it was never abundantly clear. Ohtani took time this winter to be courted and hear teams out. This offseason, he declined to discuss how many teams he was considering late in the process, but he said he didn’t make his decision until a night before his announcement.
In terms of threats, the Angels didn’t stand out to Roberts as much as the Blue Jays, Giants or Cubs.
“I don’t think they were in the conversation,” Roberts said of the Angels. “And obviously there was a lot of hearsay. They could’ve been in the conversation, but I never got wind of that. That might have been on the down-low, but even Shohei said they didn’t offer him.”
Angels pitcher Patrick Sandoval said there wasn’t much pitching Ohtani to try to stay last season because he didn’t think it would sway Ohtani’s opinion.
As rumors swirled about Ohtani’s potential landing spot, including reports of him flying to Toronto to become a Blue Jay, Sandoval found some amusement in all the speculation.
“Just knowing him, knowing how private he is, knowing there wouldn’t be much coming out from his side and the media kind of just building it up to be something that it kind of wasn’t, I thought the funny thing was when he announced that he apologized for taking so long,” Sandoval said. “It really wasn’t that long at all. It was fairly early.”
The Angels hired Ron Washington as their new manager in November. During interviews, he said the topic of Ohtani staying or leaving “never came up.” He never spoke to Ohtani before the superstar announced his decision in an Instagram post the following month.
“I certainly wasn’t going to be the one to come here and make that decision,” Washington said. “So he ended up signing with the Dodgers. I think as a manager, and every manager that’s in baseball, they would love to have him on their team. I would love to have him on this team. It didn’t happen.”
The Dodgers provided Ohtani everything he wanted. They were devoted to winning, boasting a track record of sustained success, a financial commitment to the short term and a rich pipeline of talent to help long term. They expressed that they viewed the last 10 years, during which they had won just one short-season World Series, as a failure. It couldn’t hurt that they were also close in proximity to Ohtani’s Orange County residence. They used the deferred contract Ohtani’s team conjured to build a more competitive roster.
Now, for the first time in September, Ohtani is playing meaningful baseball on a loaded roster capable of winning it all. Even without pitching this year, he has found a new way to captivate. He is on track to become the first player to record 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in the same season and the first primary designated hitter ever to win MVP.
In his return to Anaheim, the stage was set for him to be the hero. Ohtani stepped to the plate in the 10th inning with a chance to put the game away. Washington wouldn’t allow for it, instead giving him first base. Mookie Betts followed with a three-run homer.
Ohtani is used to being the hero at Angel Stadium. On Tuesday, he didn’t have to be.
“Most importantly, it’s about winning the game,” Ohtani said. “And I’m glad that we won.”
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
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