Shohei Ohtani reflects on final spring training start
TEMPE, Ariz. — Shohei Ohtani got through his final spring-training start, pitching five innings in a minor league game against a team of Class High A players from the Diamondbacks.
He threw 81 pitches and recorded eight strikeouts as he remained on track to start opening day on Thursday against the Athletics in Oakland.
“Pitch count, PitchCom and pitch clock. Besides that, offspeed,” Ohtani said in Japanese of what he was working on during the outing. “Today was a game, but I went into the game prioritizing what I wanted to work on.”
The World Baseball Classic, which did not have a pitch clock, was still a topic of conversation as well. When Ohtani was asked what it was like hitting against Patrick Sandoval, he replied, “it was fine” before laughing.
But Ohtani did think his high-pressure WBC situations served him well for the regular season.
“Once I got to the WBC, the quality was there,” he said. “At that point, I was more or less ready. Today, I was able to reassure myself that I could deal with PitchCom and the pitch clock.”
During his final spring tuneup, he gave up a solo home run to Diamondbacks prospect Gavin Conticello.
“There are players with good swings. They’re just young,” Ohtani said. “But more than the pitches, I wanted to check the PitchCom and pitch clock. So that didn’t bother me very much.”
Shohei Ohtani throws five innings in his start
TEMPE, Ariz. — Shohei Ohtani completed five innings in his spring training start against Class High A players from the Diamondbacks.
Ohtani threw 81 pitches and had eight strikeouts.
He retired the first two batters of the fifth on a flyout that was caught at the left field fence, and a strikeout.
He then gave up a walk and a hit before the inning was called. (With it being a minor league start in a controlled environment, the Angels reserved the right to end innings.)
Shohei Ohtani strikes out the side in the fourth inning
TEMPE, Ariz. — Shohei Ohtani appears to be settling in, striking out the side on 15 pitches in the fourth inning of the minor league spring-training game against Class High-A prospects from the Diamondbacks.
He retired the side in order in the third inning. He has thrown 63 pitches in four innings.
The Angels scored after Ohtani gave up a home run and took the lead in the bottom of the inning when they scored two more runs.
Shohei Ohtani works a 1-2-3 third inning in his start
TEMPE, Ariz. — Shohei Ohtani had his first 1-2-3 inning in the third, tossing 12 pitches against the Diamondbacks Class High A team.
The first batter hit a grounder that bounced back to Ohtani, who fielded it cleanly for the out. Ohtani threw one pitch way inside to another batter, who had to bend out of the way.
Ohtani has thrown 48 pitches in three innings.
Shohei Ohtani gives up home run in second inning
TEMPE, Ariz. — Shohei Ohtani gave up a solo home run to Diamondbacks prospect Gavin Conticello to lead off the second inning of his start in a minor league spring-training game.
Conticello rounded the bases and returned to his teammates notably pleased. He quietly said, “yeah!”
Ohtani gave up another hit but no other runs in the inning as he threw 22 pitches. He has thrown 36 pitches in two innings.
Shohei Ohtani through his first inning on 14 pitches
TEMPE, Ariz. — Shohei Ohtani has one inning in the books, giving up one hit and throwing 14 pitches against a squad of Class High-A players from the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Ohtani induced a popout by the leadoff hitter before giving up a single. But he retired the next two batters on a groundout and strikeout, respectively.
No fans were allowed to watch the minor league game (people were asked to clear out of the access points before first pitch), but others found more creative ways to catch a glimpse of Ohtani:
Shohei Ohtani gets ready for his spring training start
TEMPE, Ariz. — We’re drawing closer to the first pitch of Shohei Ohtani’s final spring training start, in a minor league game against a squad of Class High-A players from the Diamondbacks.
As Angels manager Phil Nevin mentioned before the game, Ohtani’s focus will be on pitching and getting his work in to stay on track for his start on opening day against the Athletics on Thursday. He is not expected to hit.
Video of Ohtani doing long toss and warming up in the bullpen below:
Shohei Ohtani named opening day starter, says he’s ‘not thinking about free agency’
TEMPE, Ariz. — In a move that surprised no one, the Angels named Shohei Ohtani their opening day pitcher once again.
“As long as baseball has been around, you look up bios on pitchers — a lot of the great ones — and how many opening day starts they’ve made,” manager Phil Nevin said after making the announcement. “It’s an honor to do that and [Shohei Ohtani] looked at it the same way. It was an honor to tell him.”
That first game, against the Oakland Athletics, is March 30, his first start of what could be his last season in an Angels uniform.
The plan this season is for Ohtani to pitch on five or six days of rest depending on the schedule, in a rotation that could be rounded out by a swing No. 6 (a pitcher who makes starts and comes out of the bullpen) or a traditional sixth starter.
Shohei Ohtani’s agent mum on Angels star’s future: ‘There’s several layers to this’
TEMPE, Ariz. — Shohei Ohtani’s agent, CAA’s Nez Balelo, stopped by Angels spring training Monday and chatted with general manager Perry Minasian as the first day of full-squad workouts continued.
He would not tell members of the media whether negotiations have begun, a policy of privacy he has with all of his clients.
He reiterated what Ohtani has said in his last two news conferences, that he’s an Angel in 2023.
Whether he’s open to discussing a contract extension before spring training ends, Balelo said that as an agent, he is always open to discussions but every situation is different.
“I think there’s several layers to this one and Shohei’s earned the right to play through the year and explore free agency and we’ll see where it shakes out,” Balelo said.
Mike Trout says he’ll do whatever he can to keep Shohei Ohtani with the Angels
TEMPE, Ariz. — The chanting started after Shohei Ohtani stepped on the ramp to head to the clubhouse.
“Sho-hei! Sho-hei!” over and over, from the dozens of Angels fans who made the trip to the team’s spring training camp.
This was the scene after he finished throwing a bullpen session on the first official day of workouts for pitchers and catchers this year. Dozens of reporters crowded a corner of a fence to snap photos and take video of Ohtani as Angels owner Arte Moreno watched while sitting on a bench a few feet behind him.
Ohtani is undoubtedly the main attraction at the minor league facility. (The Angels are running their camp there as they explore the next steps for constructing a new clubhouse on the Tempe property.)
It wouldn’t be different from any other spring with Ohtani and the Angels, except that it is. Ohtani is eligible to become a free agent after this year and unless he and the Angels agree on an extension, this could be his last spring training with them.
How Shohei Ohtani, Japan rallied to beat Mexico and advance to WBC final
MIAMI — Shohei Ohtani stepped into the batter’s box for the most important moment of his baseball career since leaving his country to play in the major leagues and didn’t waste any time.
It was the ninth inning at LoanDepot Park on Monday night. Japan, trailing by a run, was three outs from a massive upset in the World Baseball Classic semifinals at the hands of Mexico.
Standing on the mound was St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Giovanny Gallegos, Mexico’s best reliever. The first pitch was an 88-mph changeup away, off the plate, surely a ball. It didn’t matter. Ohtani hooked the pitch into the right-center-field gap for a double. He raised his arms and screamed to his dugout from second base. The momentum had shifted.
‘We see who Shohei is.’ How Shohei Ohtani and Japan advanced to WBC semifinals
Shohei Ohtani made his presence known when he struck out the first batter of Japan’s 9-3 win over Italy in a World Baseball Classic quarterfinal game Thursday, but that wasn’t his most exciting strikeout of his outing.
That belongs to his strikeout of Vinnie Pasquantino in the second inning, which came on his 102-mph fastball. That pitch was the fastest he’s thrown since signing with the Angels in 2018. His previous fastest pitch was clocked at 101.4 mph, which he threw Sept. 10, 2022, against the Houston Astros. Ohtani had thrown a 102.5 mph fastball before, when he was still playing for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in Nippon Professional Baseball.
But Ohtani’s command faltered in the fifth inning, after he hit two batters and gave up two hits and two earned runs, which prompted Samurai Japan manager Hideki Kuriyama to pull him from his outing before he could get out of the inning.
Arte Moreno explains why he didn’t sell the Angels, shares plans for Shohei Ohtani
Arte Moreno just couldn’t do it. The Angels owner, who put the team up for sale in August, told Sports Illustrated he wasn’t ready to give up his team despite receiving three offers worth more than the record $2.42 billion Steve Cohen purchased the New York Mets for in 2020.
“I had some big numbers,” Moreno said in an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci. “Yeah, it was above the Mets’ number. Well, it was considerably above the Mets’ number.
“I had one buyer come to [Angel Stadium] to close the deal,” he said, then recounted the exchange with the buyer. “When you got right down to it, I didn’t want to go.”
Moreno has not spoken to local media in three years. His interview with Verducci represented his first detailed comments about the Angels in at least two years.
He told SI that last year the Angels had five real trade offers for Shohei Ohtani and declared they would not trade him this year while they are contending for a playoff spot.
Column: It’s anyone’s guess what Angels’ two-way star Shohei Ohtani’s future is
TEMPE, Ariz. — Everyone has theories about Shohei Ohtani.
Such as how he doesn’t like the cold.
Or that he appreciates how the Angels make relatively few demands of him outside of playing baseball and might be reluctant to play for a team that wants more from a franchise player.
Or that he doesn’t care about money. Or that he actually does. Or that maybe he really doesn’t but the people around him do.
Shohei Ohtani’s first appearance on the mound with pitch clock went smoothly
MESA, Ariz. — Shohei Ohtani knew coming into spring training that one of his biggest challenges would be the pitch clock.
The Angels’ two-way star made his first appearance as a pitcher in a spring game Tuesday. He threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings against the Oakland Athletics, striking out two and walking two, without a clock violation in his 34 pitches.
Whether he could pitch within the allotted time limit — 15 seconds between pitches with the bases empty, 20 seconds with runners on base and 30 seconds between batters — was not a big concern for anyone around the team.
What manager Phil Nevin did consider was how the time limit would affect the intimidation factor Ohtani has on opposing batters.
“When you’re standing in the box and Nolan Ryan’s pacing around the mound,” Nevin said Sunday morning, the day after the Angels’ first spring training game, “you’re like, ‘Oh, hell, what’s he going to do next to me,’ right? I think Shohei has that presence about him.
Shohei Ohtani will focus on pitching, won’t hit in minor league game
TEMPE — Shohei Ohtani will pitch in a minor league game Friday afternoon, the results of which manager Phil Nevin said he is not focused on.
“We’re going to get him to what we feel is a comfortable number, what he feels is a comfortable number to come back and go out on opening day,” Nevin said.
Friday’s minor league game — a crowd for which has already started growing in the public access areas of the back fields, which gives little to no view of the mound on Field 3 — is the first time since the beginning of spring training that Ohtani will use the pitch clock in a game setting.
“It’s just a matter of getting his pitches in,” Nevin said. “Really, this is off of him because he knows his body better than anybody and we trust him.”
Nevin said Ohtani had the option to take some at-bats as well, but he likely will just focus on pitching. He will DH in the three Freeway Series exhibition games in Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium.
“He’s got plenty of at-bats this spring,” Nevin said
Even a Shohei Ohtani batting practice session is a spectacle to behold
TEMPE, Ariz. — Shohei Ohtani took his usual stance in the batter’s box, bat perked up, face solemn. The ball came his way and he swung, launching it toward the sky, the arc of the ball’s path planting it on top of the minor league clubhouse.
“Man, how far do you think that was?” Angels outfielder Mike Trout said lightly.
This is a regular scene at batting practice when Ohtani is up: Towering hits that the 2021 most valuable player shows off just about every spring.
It’s quite the spectacle early in spring training. When on the lower practice fields, Ohtani usually hits on Field 3, which is hard for fans to see, but his batting practices at Diablo Stadium are equally as incredible.
Angels manager Phil Nevin on Shohei Ohtani: ‘I got the best player in the world on my team.’
TEMPE, Ariz. — Phil Nevin, talking before the Angels’ Cactus League game on Friday, was asked what he thought about seeing his opening day starter close for Japan in the World Baseball Classic final
Nevin replied: “That I got the best player in the world on my team.”
Very specifically, did Ohtani’s dominant ninth inning — which he finished by striking out his teammate Mike Trout — make him think that if the opportunity ever presented itself in a postseason game, Ohtani could close for the Angels?
“Oh, yeah,” Nevin said and grinned. “It did.
“A lot of things from that day, you kind of put yourself in that situation,” he added, “whether it’s watching him close out the ninth or Mike hitting in those situations and then being up on the podium and seeing his excitement. I told them both the three of us are going to be on there.”
Column: Shohei Ohtani’s WBC dominance proves he must leave the Angels
This isn’t just about what’s best for Shohei Ohtani anymore. This is about what’s best for baseball.
Ohtani can’t sign another contract with the Angels.
When Ohtani becomes a free agent next winter, he has to move on, and he has to move on to a team that will offer him a chance to play baseball every single October.
His talent requires it. His mentality demands it.
He’s made for the big stage.
That was the single greatest takeaway from the World Baseball Classic, which concluded Tuesday night with Ohtani striking out Mike Trout on a full-count slider.
‘He has changed my life completely.’ What it’s like covering Shohei Ohtani
Naoyuki Yanagihara’s life mostly revolves around Shohei Ohtani.
If Ohtani posts on his Instagram page, Yanagihara writes about it. Everywhere Ohtani travels for baseball, Yanagihara follows. During spring training, if Ohtani isn’t at the Tempe, Ariz., facility yet, he waits for his car to pull up.
Yanagihara, who writes for Sports Nippon, an all-sports daily Japanese newspaper, has been covering Ohtani since 2013, his rookie year with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
Yanagihara does not live in the U.S. His home is in Tokyo, where he lives with his wife and 9-month old baby for half the year, spending the other half living out of hotels in the U.S.
“Every day, I make a phone call, a video call to my wife,” he said. “Around 7 or 8 p.m., so it’s morning over in Japan. I always struggle with jet lag.”
This is the life of a Japanese sportswriter assigned to cover the country’s biggest star playing in Major League Baseball. He’s one of dozens who, since Ohtani signed with the Angels in December 2017, has attended just about every game and every day of spring training that Ohtani is at.
‘That’s what everyone wanted to see.’ How Shohei Ohtani fanned Mike Trout to win WBC
MIAMI — The two teams, representing the world’s two longstanding baseball superpowers, entered the field at LoanDepot Park on Tuesday night in a single file from each outfield corner. The United States walked in from right field. Japan was across the way. Leading the line for each star-studded group were the two best players in the world.
Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, the captains, carried their respective country’s flags. Three weeks ago, they were Angels teammates in spring training together. They will be together again in Arizona by the end of the week, going through the final preparations for the Angels’ crucial season. But on Tuesday they were opponents for the World Baseball Classic championship, the biggest game of their baseball lives.
Trout’s role for the night was known from the outset. It was the same as always. Batting second and playing center field. Ohtani was a different, mysterious story. The two-way star was again batting third as Japan’s designated hitter. Looming, however, was the chance he would emerge from the bullpen to pitch with the game on the line. Maybe even against Trout.
Angels pitcher Patrick Sandoval is also back from the WBC
TEMPE, Ariz. — Angels left-hander Patrick Sandoval also took part in the World Baseball Classic, pitching for Team Mexico and starting Monday’s semifinal game in Miami against Japan that Shohei Ohtani’s squad ultimately won 6-5.
He has notable bragging rights, having struck out both Mike Trout and Ohtani when Mexico played their national teams. But through the tournament, he didn’t really have much communication with or try to trash talk any of his Angels teammates also playing in the tournament or who were back at spring camp.
“I was waiting to do it in person,” he joked on Friday.
Team Mexico made a run to the WBC semifinals, beating the U.S. in pool play — a game Sandoval started — and knocking off Puerto Rico in the quarterfinals last week.
Sandoval made his other WBC start against Japan on Monday, tossing 4 1/3 scoreless innings while striking out six.
Of playing against Japan in the semifinal, he said it was more unique because of the Japanese fans’ way of rooting for their team.
“The fans there, they brought their horns and they’re going crazy while [Japan’s] hitting and then when they pitch, it’s kind of quiet,” he recalled. “It’s just a weird, unique experience I’ve never had before, so it was cool. And that lineup, that team was really good.”
He was also a spectator in the stands for the USA-Venezuela and USA-Japan games.
“I’m not normally someone that sits and watches baseball like all the time,” he said, “but that environment and the baseball that was being played in the past 10 days was so much fun to see.”
Playing in the WBC overall, he said, prepared him for any postseason games he could play in the future.
“Just crazy,” he said. “I’ve never pitched in any environment like that ever in my life.”
Sandoval goes into this season as the Angels’ No. 2 starter in the rotation — manager Phil Nevin named him the starter for Day 2 of the season during the first week of camp in February. It was a well deserved distinction, based on the season he had last year, but even more so after his dominance in the WBC.
“I guess [I got] a little bit of a confidence boost in my stuff,” he said. “If it plays against those guys, it’ll play against anyone. Just more confidence in throwing strikes and not letting people free bases.”
And he wants to play for Team Mexico again in the next WBC in 2026.
Asked whether he felt snubbed over not being invited to play for Team USA, he said:
“A little bit at first, but when I got with the [Team Mexico players], I was like, ‘This is where I’m supposed to be right now.’”
Back with the Angels, Shohei Ohtani makes final spring training start
TEMPE, Ariz. — Shohei Ohtani, fresh off winning the World Baseball Classic with Samurai Japan on Tuesday, is scheduled to make his final start in a spring training game on Friday — though he is not pitching in the Angels’ Cactus League game.
He’ll pitch in a minor league game, a more controlled and dialed-down setting on the lower practice fields compared to Tuesday’s WBC final.
Pitching on Friday lines up Ohtani to pitch on opening day in Oakland next Thursday against the Athletics.
Ohtani returned to the Angels’ camp on Thursday and was greeted by a few fans who waited beside the fence around the players’ parking lot as he made his way into the facility.
Thursday was an off day for the Angels. Their minor leaguers (who have been holding their camp at the facility in Scottsdale) were bused in for a camp game. José Suarez pitched a few innings of that game with Luis Rengifo and Taylor Ward briefly participating as well.
Since MLB’s new rules for this year, as well as the use of PitchCom devices, were not implemented for the WBC, Friday will mark just the second time in a game that Ohtani will use the pitch timer and first since Feb. 28.
The Angels head back to Southern California after Saturday and will play in the Freeway Series against the Dodgers starting Sunday, with two games in Anaheim on Monday and Tuesday.
Follow along here as we take you inside Angels camp and Ohtani’s final spring start on Friday.