Los Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani mentioned on Saturday that he is “very assured” he’ll be within the lineup because the staff’s designated hitter once they open Main League Baseball’s common season in Seoul, South Korea on March 20 in opposition to the San Diego Padres, according to ESPN’s Alden González. Ohtani, who added that he is proper on schedule along with his restoration, made his feedback in the course of the staff’s annual “DodgerFest” celebration.
Ohtani, 29, is not going to be accessible to pitch this season after present process an elbow operation that ended the pitching portion of his marketing campaign prematurely final August. He was then shut down as a hitter after struggling an indirect damage. These bodily woes didn’t forestall Ohtani from signing a 10-year pact with the Dodgers value $700 million. (The contract features a historic quantity of deferrals that make it considerably much less beneficial in present-day phrases.) Nor did they forestall Ohtani from successful his second American League MVP award.
Ohtani is not any stranger to persevering with to hit whereas nursing an arm damage. In spite of everything, he was restricted to 12 begins over the course of the 2018-20 seasons. Nonetheless, that did not cease him from showing in 254 video games as a hitter, or from compiling a 125 OPS+ with 47 house runs and 147 RBI.
The Dodgers and Padres will play two video games in Seoul, marking the primary time MLB has ever hosted video games in South Korea. It will not be Ohtani’s first time there, nonetheless. He appeared in World Baseball Traditional video games there final spring as a member of the eventual champions Group Japan.
Ohtani is certainly one of a number of notable additions the Dodgers made to their roster following a disappointing exit from final fall’s postseason. The Dodgers have additionally acquired Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Teoscar Hernandez and James Paxton both by way of free company or trades.
Ohtani will enter the 2024 season, his seventh in MLB, as a profession .274/.366/.556 hitter (148 OPS+). As a pitcher, he is amassed a 142 ERA+ and a 3.51 strikeout-to-walk ratio. General, his contributions have been value an estimated 34.7 Wins Above Alternative, per Baseball Reference’s calculations.
