Shohei Ohtani Is Out for the Season
Los Angeles Angels pitcher & designated hitter Shohei Ohtani is out for the season with a left knee injury. The nature of Ohtani’s injury is surgery to address a bipartite patella in his left knee. This is the second straight season Ohtani has had surgery. The estimated recovery time for this injury is 8-12 weeks. Ohtani will finish off the 2019 season batting .386 with 18 HR and 62 RBI in 425 at-bats.
First Great Two Way Player
Ohtani signed with the Angels in December of 2017. Billed as a two-way player Ohtani began the 2018 season as a designated hitter and as a member of the Angels starting rotation. In Japan, Ohtani batted .386 and hit 47 HR in 710 at-bats. As a pitcher, Ohtani went 42-15 with a 2.69 ERA and 624 strikeouts in 543 innings pitched.
Ohtani’s impressive numbers in Japan as a two-way player made him sought after by many major league teams. Ohtani ultimately picked the Angels and won the rookie of the year in 2018. Ohtani batted .285 with 22 HR and 61 RBI. As a pitcher, Ohtani was 4-2 with a 3.31 ERA.
Injury History
Ohtani was placed on the injured list three times in his brief two-year career. Ohtani was placed on the injured list in June of 2018 with a right elbow UCL sprain. He missed nearly a month. In September the Angels announced Ohtani won’t pitch for the rest of the season. Ohtani finished out the season as the designated hitter and had Tommy John surgery after the season.
The surgery kept Ohtani off the mound for the entire 2019 season. Ohtani the hitter started the 2019 season on the injured list as he recovered from offseason surgery. In May Ohtani was activated and served as the Angels designated hitter until his knee injury ended his season.
Ohtani’s Outlook
Some can say that Ohtani has been a disappointment. Injuries have played a big part in that. In 2018 Ohtani became the first major league player in nearly a century to hit 15 HR and pitch 50 innings in a season. The last player to accomplish this was Babe Ruth.
The expectation is for Ohtani to be fully healthy for spring training in 2020. We have not seen the best of Ohtani. Hopefully, in the 2020 season, we can see all of what Ohtani can do on the baseball field.
