Ohtani, Shohei (1994 -…), is an outstanding professional baseball player. Ohtani is a two-way player—that is, a player who excels at both hitting and pitching. In the higher levels of professional baseball, most pitchers are highly specialized in that role at the expense of poor hitting. However, Ohtani has excelled at both during his career. He is also one of the fastest base runners in Major League Baseball (MLB).
Ohtani stands 6 feet 4 inches (193 centimeters) tall. He bats left-handed and throws right-handed. He is a starting pitcher. During games in which he does not pitch, he serves as the designated hitter (DH). A designated hitter bats during a game but does not play in the field.
Ohtani began his MLB career in 2018 with the Los Angeles Angels. As a batter, he posted a .285 batting average, hit 22 home runs, and had 61 runs batted in (RBI’s). As a pitcher, he went 4-2 with a 3.31 earned run average (ERA). He earned the American League (AL) Rookie of the Year award for his performance. Various injuries shortened Ohtani’s 2018, 2019, and 2020 seasons.
A fully healthy Ohtani produced a historic performance during the 2021 season. As a pitcher, Ohtani went 9-2 with a 3.18 ERA. As a batter, he had a .257 batting average, hit 46 home runs, and had 100 RBI’s. He was the named the AL Most Valuable Player (MVP) that year.
In 2023, despite missing the last month of the season with an injury, Ohtani led the AL with 44 home runs. He also hit .304 and had 95 RBI’s. As a pitcher, Ohtani went 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA. He won his second American League MVP award that year. After the 2023 season, Ohtani signed a contract to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Early in his career, Ohtani did not bat in the games he pitched. Another player was the designated hitter to bat in his place. In 2021, Ohtani began to bat in many of the games in which he pitched. This practice was virtually unheard of, as the designated hitter rule was designed to replace the pitcher with a stronger offensive player at the plate. Ohtani was selected for the 2021 MLB All-Star Game as both a pitcher and a DH. It was the first time a player was named an All-Star as both a pitcher and a hitter. In 2022 and 2023, Ohtani was again selected to the MLB All-Star Game as both a pitcher and a DH.
Ohtani was born July 5, 1994, in Oshu, Japan. His father played baseball, and his mother played badminton. Ohtani started playing baseball at a young age. He attended Hanamaki Higashi High School, where he developed into the top-ranked baseball prospect in Japan. In 2013, Ohtani was drafted by the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), Japan’s highest professional baseball league. He was one of the hardest-throwing pitchers and fastest runners in NPB. His batting initially lagged behind his pitching, but he produced an outstanding offensive season in 2016, hitting 22 home runs and batting .322 over 104 games.
After the 2017 NPB season, Ohtani requested that the Nippon-Ham Fighters make him available to MLB teams. Under an agreement between MLB and NPB, Japanese players under 25 years of age are allowed to sign only a minor-league MLB contract and earn a league-minimum salary. Ohtani, who was 23 at the time, thus gave up the opportunity to negotiate a large MLB contract in order to enter the league at a younger age. He accepted a contract from the Los Angeles Angels.
