Angels’ Shohei Ohtani is ready for the 2022 season: ‘Aim higher and higher’

It took only some days along with his new membership for Angels pitcher Noah Syndergaard to know the eminence of Shohei Ohtani, the two-way phenom who was a unanimous selection for American League most respected participant final season.

“Man, the aura round him … ” Syndergaard stated throughout the first week of spring coaching. “You’ll be able to undoubtedly inform that there’s a greatness to his presence.”

Syndergaard noticed the highlights from 2021 and marveled at Ohtani’s freakish skill to throw a baseball 100 mph and hit one 450 toes. He was in awe of the numbers Ohtani posted in what was arguably the best all-around season in baseball historical past.

And this spring, after signing a one-year, $21-million cope with the Angels in November, Syndergaard obtained a glance beneath the hood on the engine that drives Ohtani, a piece ethic that has change into nearly legendary and is fueling what looks like an unimaginable dream for 2022:

That Ohtani could be even higher.

“I understand how he’s wired, how he’s constructed, and it’s totally different,” Angels normal supervisor Perry Minasian stated of the 6-foot-4, 225-pound Ohtani. “It’s 24 hours a day, seven days per week.

“He achieved loads of the issues he needed to perform [last] season, and I do know these are lofty expectations, and I do know this sounds loopy, however I nonetheless suppose there’s one other gear in there, one other stage. As wonderful as final 12 months was, I believe he can attain increased ranges.”

Angels supervisor Joe Maddon would gladly take a repeat of 2021, when Ohtani batted .257 with a .965 on-base-plus-slugging proportion, 46 homers, 100 RBIs, 103 runs and 26 stolen bases and went 9-2 with a 3.18 ERA in 23 begins on the mound, putting out 156 and strolling 44 in 130 1/3 innings.

“I don’t need to get grasping,” Maddon stated.

Ohtani, who’s scheduled to pitch the season opener April 7 in opposition to the Houston Astros at Angel Stadium, stated by an interpreter that he “want to intention increased and better” and that if he can keep wholesome for your complete season, “I can enhance my numbers throughout the board.”

Two new guidelines — the adoption of the common designated hitter and the so-called “Ohtani rule,” which can enable a participant to begin a recreation as a pitcher and DH and proceed as DH when he’s not pitching — ought to assist.

Ohtani, 27, had 639 plate appearances final season however began solely as soon as as a pitcher and appeared seven instances as a pinch-hitter in 10 video games in Nationwide League parks, accumulating 11 plate appearances in all.

The Angels are scheduled to play 10 video games in NL parks in 2022. If Ohtani begins all of them — two or three on the mound and the remaining at DH — he may make 40 to 50 plate appearances in them.

“With the DH within the Nationwide League, I’ll have extra alternatives to play,” Ohtani stated. “Personally, I believe it’s a very good factor.”

Ohtani also needs to profit from the return of Mike Trout, the three-time AL MVP who suffered a season-ending proper calf pressure final Could 17, and Anthony Rendon, the third baseman who suffered a season-ending proper hip damage in early July.

With out the lineup safety of the 2 sluggers, the left-handed-hitting Ohtani drew as many walks within the remaining two months (48) as he did within the first 4. Ohtani drew three intentional walks in his first three seasons mixed — he drew 20 in 2021, together with 14 in August and September.

Pressured to hold the offense, Ohtani expanded his strike zone, producing extra swings and misses and weak contact. He had his worst month of the season in August, batting .202 with a .749 OPS.

Groups in rivalry hardly ever threw Ohtani a strike. The Astros, as an example, walked Ohtani seven instances — twice deliberately — in 9 plate appearances in two video games Sept. 22-23.

“When he will get sizzling and guarded [at the plate] … he didn’t have it on the finish of final 12 months, and it was totally different,” Maddon stated. “They didn’t should pitch to him, so he opened issues up that he didn’t usually should open up.

“With [Trout and Rendon] there, he’ll be extra keen or capable of settle for walks. When these guys weren’t there, I believe he felt the duty to do extra.”

Ohtani spent the winter earlier than the 2021 season finishing his rehabilitation from Tommy John surgical procedure, which restricted him to 1 2/3 innings mixed in 2019 and 2020, and from surgical procedure to restore the bipartite patella tendon in his left knee, which hampered him in 2020.

Although blessed with the lean, athletic construct of an Olympic swimmer, Ohtani refined his eating regimen primarily based on blood work to find out what meals finest fueled him and tweaked his strength-and-conditioning program.

The Angels additionally developed a plan final spring to take away restrictions on Ohtani’s utilization — eliminating set guidelines on how usually he took the mound, when he would take days off and extra — and as an alternative decided his workload primarily based on how he felt all year long.

“The most important factor he and I speak about are his legs,” Maddon stated. “If the legs get fatigued, that would result in a breakdown in different areas of his recreation, however that’s it. … He’s a terrific athlete. He’s finely tuned. He works actually laborious. Let him play.”

Ohtani thrived with such freedom in 2021, not solely maximizing his two-way skills however pitching and hitting at elite ranges, the fluidity and relative ease of his actions on the sphere defying their levels of issue.

Ohtani didn’t simply rank third in baseball in dwelling runs — he crushed the ball so persistently that, in line with Baseball Savant, he had the second-highest barrel proportion (12.2%) behind San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. He hit a significant league-leading 24 homers with exit velocities of 110 mph or extra.

Along with rating eighth in stolen bases, Ohtani had the quickest common home-to-first dash time (4.09 seconds) within the main leagues.

Ohtani gave up two or fewer runs in 17 of 23 begins. He was one in every of 4 AL beginning pitchers to achieve 100 mph with a minimum of 11 pitches. His split-fingered fastball, an 88-mph pitch with 33 inches of vertical drop, produced an .087 (11 for 127) batting common in opposition to, the bottom for any pitch within the main leagues.

“He’s only a totally different animal,” Maddon stated. “And he legitimately likes to play and compete. You’d wish to suppose all people’s the identical manner, however they’re not. That’s what separates him. He’s not afraid of any scenario. The brighter the lights, the extra he enjoys it.”

Ohtani confirmed in 2018, when he was voted AL rookie of the 12 months, and 2019 that he could possibly be a harmful slugger, however the success — and dominance — he loved in his first full season on the mound has boosted his confidence getting into 2022.

Shohei Ohtani, hitting a house run in opposition to the New York Yankees on June 29, 2021, led the majors with 24 homers that had an exit velocity of 110 mph or extra.

(Sarah Stier / Getty Photographs)

“I believe I’m in a greater place than I used to be in the beginning final 12 months, together with bodily,” Ohtani stated. “There weren’t any main modifications [in his offseason regimen or approach to this season]. The very first thing is to stay on the trail I’m on.”

The best-hander combines a four-seam fastball that averaged 95.6 mph final season with a pointy 82.2-mph slider, his nose-diving splitter, an 86.9-mph cutter and a 74.7-mph curve, giving him a number of weapons with which to assault hitters.

“Some days, he’ll come into the dugout and say, ‘Hey, I’m feeling my slider, let’s go together with the slider,’ ” Angels backup catcher Kurt Suzuki stated. “And a few days, he’s like, ‘Hey, my cut up is admittedly good as we speak, let’s use it.’ Or the curve or cutter is sweet.

“The primary inning or two, he’s feeling issues out, making an attempt to get comfy, to settle in, like every nice pitcher does, and after that, it’s, ‘Let’s go.’ ”

Ohtani had 4 10-strikeout video games final season and featured a unique pitch in three of them, throwing principally fastballs in opposition to Houston on Could 11 and Seattle on June 4. However 57 of his 108 pitches in opposition to Oakland on Sept. 19 had been splitters, and 52 of his 112 pitches in opposition to Seattle on Sept. 26 had been sliders.

His skill to make changes, in recreation and from begin to begin, and to control his pitches, altering the speed of his fastballs and sliders and the form of his curves, leads Suzuki to consider Ohtani can enhance on the mound.

“After final 12 months, I don’t doubt something that he says he desires to do,” Suzuki stated. “The man will make up a pitch within the bullpen earlier than the sport and exit and strike out 15 guys with it. He’s fairly particular. If one thing’s not working, he’ll work out a method to get you out.”

Ohtani, within the second 12 months of a two-year, $8.5-million contract and beneath membership management by 2023, has proven no indicators of complacency this spring.

That was evident to Max Stassi in February when the catcher spent a number of weeks earlier than camp catching bullpen classes and figuring out with Ohtani at a Driveline facility within the Phoenix space.

“He seems to be unbelievable,” Stassi stated. “You’ll be able to’t put any limits on him. He’s as hungry as ever. I do know he desires to pitch deeper into video games. He desires to pitch extra. I believe it’s going to be one other unbelievable 12 months.”

What concerning the stress on Ohtani to repeat his 2021 efficiency, to show it was no fluke?

“Shohei is difficult sufficient on himself — he desires to show to himself,” Stassi stated. “However so far as exterior stress, he’s the identical man on daily basis, good, unhealthy, OK? He places the work in day in and day trip. He eats, sleeps and breathes baseball and needs to be the perfect model of himself.”

For a man who can do all of it, that will be greater than sufficient.