Tag Archives: Shohei Ohtani

2024 MLB Free Agent Predictions

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By Ryan Harless

Ryan Harless is a fourth-year undergraduate at BGSU from Hillsboro, Ohio. He is majoring in Sport Management with a Journalism Minor. Baseball and golf at all levels are his primary interests but he is also interested in combat sports, hockey, basketball, and football.

November 19, 2023

­Baseball season has come to an end yet again and now is time to look forward to what may be at the start of next season with some free agents! This is one of the most star-studded free agent classes of recent memory, so I am expecting some fireworks and some interesting looking teams come next April.

Criteria: I am only selecting the free agents I wanted to talk about so unfortunately, I won’t be doing deep dives on Drew Rucinski.

Catcher: Gary Sanchez – After having a few weird years with the Yankees and Twins, Sanchez made a huge impact this year with the Padres. He helped ace Blake Snell to have one of the best seasons of his career from behind the plate and helped bring a little more fight to the already pretty stacked Padres. He didn’t provide a lot of help in the batter’s box BUT as an elite defensive catcher and with the ace of the staff asking to be caught by him, I imagine Sanchez will stay in San Diego.

First Base: Rhys Hoskins – Following a disappointing NLCS loss to the Diamondbacks, Hoskins is in an odd spot. The rumors around MLB are that Bryce Harper is planning on being full time at first base from 2024 onward which makes it look like Hoskins will be finding a new home this offseason. I think a great spot for him would be San Francisco. He could take over for Wilmer Flores and free him up to become a utility player yet again and help be a piece to the puzzle the Giants are trying to put together.

Honorable Mention: Joey Votto – The Reds announced that they wouldn’t be renewing Votto’s deal (largest in team history) after a cool 19 years in the organization. I’m still very hopeful that the Reds sign him to a one-year deal so that he can retire as a Red. But if he has to leave, I wouldn’t mind him signing with his hometown Toronto Blue Jays or even possibly a playoff contender so that he can finally play meaningful October baseball again.

Second Base: Looking through the list of free agent second basemen was pretty disappointing. The biggest names were Elvis Andrus and Whit Merrifield (both 35). Don’t get me wrong, great players but I don’t see either of them making a huge impact when they find new teams.

Shortstop: Amed Rosario – One of the best and youngest names on the free agent list Rosario is a career .272 batter with a glove that is next to a sure thing. He had spent multiple seasons with both the Mets and Guardians before he was shipped to the Dodgers late last season before the playoffs. I think that he will end up resigning with the Dodgers as they can probably get him for just over $10 million a year.

Third Base: Matt Chapman – Coming off of an offensively disappointing year where he was still able to secure his fourth Rawlings Gold Glove, Chapman will probably be commanding a relatively high yearly salary. While his offense is much more hit or miss than Nolan Arenado, his defense in the hot corner is undeniable. Under the right circumstances, Chapman could easily be an MVP contender. He has turned down a sizable deal from Toronto already so I don’t anticipate him to be back next year, but I think he would be a great fit with the Giants much like Hoskins. With the Giants looking to be big spenders this offseason, I think two new stars to anchor their infield is more than believable.

Outfield: Lourdes Gurriel Jr. – After a World Series run with Arizona, I would be very very shocked to see the youngest Gurriel brother anywhere but with the snakes in 2024. He has been a beacon of consistency and clutch as he proved this postseason. This will more than likely cost Arizona a decent bit of change but I think it would be well worth it for their future.

Cody Bellinger – After winning National League comeback player of the year, Bellinger looks to be back to his 2019 MVP winning ways. One of the least surprising free agents of the entire class, Bellinger excelled in Wrigley and if it weren’t for possibly the biggest free agent of all time (spoiler) also being available, I would say he’s a shoo in to come back. But I still find it hard to believe he will go anywhere else after finding this success. However, for the sake of predicting something other than him resigning, I could see him ending up in pinstripes as a Yankee in 2024.

Teoscar Hernández – Two seasons removed from his last All-Star appearance, Teoscar looks to have regressed a little over the past couple years. This is not to say he is no longer a good player, but he simply isn’t hitting almost .300 and doesn’t seem to have as much pop as he formerly did. Now, I really like Teoscar, he has all the tools and seems to be universally liked by his teammates! He absolutely should get picked up by someone, and I predict that he will go to Colorado. Plenty of room to roam in the outfield, and the elevation ought to help bring some of the ever-valuable pop back to his game.

Pitchers: Aaron Nola – The ace of the almost National League champs surely set himself up well to finally get paid this season. He had his fifth consecutive full (162 game) season of 200+ strikeouts and was able to contain offenses in the postseason that were very dangerous. As much as I wanted to see him stay in Philly, I thought they missed their chance to ink a long-term deal with him last offseason. I thought Nola would be walking and likely to another contender as a great fit in Seattle. He and Luis Castillo would be a terrifying 1-2 punch. It turns out, he just inked a 7-year deal with the Phillies.

Blake Snell – After possibly his best season to date, Snell will likely be commanding a lot of money with his second career Cy Young. This will certainly limit the teams that are available to go after him, I could easily see Snell getting the eye of a New York team like the Mets. My only concern with him is that the majority of his success this season came after the acquisition of Gary Sanchez. I would almost be willing to bet that if the Padres are open to re-signing both of them, they will stay together.

Sonny Gray – Following his first All-Star appearance since 2019, Gray showed some dominance; despite his 8-8 record he allowed a league leading 0.4 home runs per 9 innings. I think his direction will be super dependent on the direction the Twins are wanting to take. If they feel that they can compete for a championship next year and looking forward, I imagine he would come back. But if Minnesota is looking to dismantle and rebuild, I think Gray would make a lot of sense for St. Louis as a veteran pitcher as the Cardinals have lost a lot of veteran presence over the past few seasons.

Who we all came to hear about: Shohei Ohtani – I mean, its Ohtani. Coming off his second unanimous MVP season in the last three years, the only thing we are able to have a conversation about is how long and where he will go. I think he will be first, looking for a long-term deal, but that will cost substantially more money. I anticipate Shohei getting more than $40 million a year as he is both an elite pitcher and hitter AND is coming off arguably the best baseball season ever played. From everything I have seen and heard, I expect him to (unfortunately for the Reds fan in me) land with the Chicago Cubs. They were finalists in the Shohei sweepstakes the first time around, and now that he has some MLB service under his belt and is more comfortable in the states, I think his only limitation is himself.

The Angels’ Biblical Struggle

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Caption: Shohei Ohtani dawns Samurai headgear and celebrates with teammates after a Home Run.

By Ryan Harless

Ryan Harless is a fourth-year undergraduate at BGSU from Hillsboro, Ohio. He is majoring in Sport Management with a Journalism Minor. Baseball and golf at all levels are his primary interests but he is also interested in combat sports, hockey, basketball, and football.

August 13, 2023

The Los Angeles Angels decided to pull (arguably) the greatest baseball player of all time off the trading block in what looks to be a statement move. The Angels have shown baseball that they are doing everything they can to get Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout to the playoffs.

On the 27th of July, the Angels announced that they would NOT be trading Ohtani at this year’s deadline. The team then proceeded to acquire pitchers Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez as well as two players with past ties to the team in C.J. Cron and Randal Grichuk.

They got all four of these players without having to give up much at all and I think they will all be great late-season pickups for LA. However, simply acquiring these players isn’t going to automatically put the team in first place. They are in a very tough division dealing with both the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros who are currently in first and second place, respectively.

The Angels now sit in fourth place, 12.5 games behind Texas and are six games behind the Seattle Mariners. On top of that, they are 6.5 games back from holding a wild card spot and punching their ticket to the postseason. They trail Tampa Bay, Houston, and Toronto who are all currently in place to get wild card spots as well as Boston and the Yankees who have them by 3 and 4 games respectively.

Now only time will tell if the Angels made the right decision keeping Ohtani for the full year. Some people might be of the opinion that they should have traded Ohtani while they still had control so that they could get something for him. Some might think that they still have a chance for a postseason push, although chances seem to be fading fast.

Many were speculating that a trade deal for Ohtani would be team altering. A team that wanted Ohtani would have more than likely had to give up their top prospects as well as one or two Major League ready players who could fill a roster spot right now. There were very few teams who were willing to make that sort of shift in a franchise and I believe that Angels GM Perry Minasian didn’t want to be remembered as the GM that traded (possibly) the greatest player of all time.

That being said, the biggest question now outside of the will they/won’t they playoff talk, is what team is going to have the funds and ability to pay Shohei Ohtani this offseason?

The Angels seemed to be going into “win now” mode with all of their eggs in the basket for this season, so I would be very surprised to see a resigning. We always have the huge market teams like the Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, and San Diego. Especially with the Mets dealing their 40-year-old, $40 million pitcher (Max Scherzer) to the Rangers and their 43.3 million pitcher (Justin Verlander) to the Astros, they could be selling this year to make salary space for the money Ohtani will command.

I think it is entirely reasonable to assume that Shohei will sign the largest contract in baseball history in terms of average yearly salary. I would even venture to say that paying North of $50 million a year would be more than fair. When you think of all that you are getting with Ohtani OUTSIDE of his pure baseball greatness, you realize that he can entirely change the way the baseball world looks at a team.

He is easily the most marketable player in baseball right now, everyone loves him as a person, he has done wonders in bringing Japanese fans to MLB and expanding that market. In terms of being on a team, what more could you ask of a player?

Another aspect of Ohtani that has been overlooked is the fact that he is a two-way player. So, the way I see it, if you sign him to a long-term deal, even if he starts falling off as either a pitcher or a hitter in a noticeable way, he can just stop doing one and focus on the other. Now, obviously that is a decision that is entirely up to Shohei, but I still think it could be an option in the future.

I think the most reasonable outcome of this upcoming offseason would be a team inking Ohtani to a 1–3-year deal. He is still going to take a ton of money a year to play so I can’t see many teams committing to Ohtani at his price for much more than that.

As of today, Ohtani is slashing .302/.403/.680 with a 1.083 OPS, a 187 OPS+, 39 HR, 7 triples, and 66 walks. He is leading MLB in all of those stats minus his .302 average.

As a pitcher he is 9-5 with a 3.43 ERA, 131 ERA+, 156 strikeouts and has only given up 18 HR in 120.2 innings pitched. He is also leading the MLB with 5.9 hits per 9 innings.

He is clearly dominant in all facets of his game. He made this incredibly evident on the 27th of July during an Angels doubleheader. In the first game, Ohtani was the starting pitcher and threw a complete game shutout which is becoming increasingly rare in today’s game. He was hitless in the first game going 0-5 at the plate, but once pitching wasn’t on his mind, he let us know. In the second game of the day, Ohtani hit not one but TWO homers furthering his home run lead over everyone else in Major League Baseball. I was super excited for this trade deadline in the MLB and as exciting as it has been, I am super stoked to get to watch the Shohei sweepstakes unfold over this offseason.

World Baseball Classic: Final Thoughts 

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Caption: Shohei Ohtani celebrates striking out Mike Trout and winning the WBC

By Ryan Harless

Ryan Harless is a third-year undergraduate at BGSU from Hillsboro, Ohio. He is majoring in Sport Management with a Journalism Minor. Baseball and golf at all levels are his primary interests but he is also interested in combat sports, hockey, basketball, and football.

March 26, 2023

The World Baseball Classic (WBC) has come to a close with Japan taking the crown after a 3-2 win over Team U.S.A. on March 21. If the final game were to be a movie, people would have a hard time believing it.  

With Japan up 3-2 in the top of the ninth inning, Shohei Ohtani emerged from the bullpen to put the final nail in the coffin for Team U.S.A. After getting the first two batters out, his Angels teammate, Mike Trout, stepped to the plate in one of the coolest baseball moments of all time.  

Mike Trout, who is considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time since his 2011 debut in MLB. Shohei Ohtani, who could arguably become THE best baseball player of all time faced off with the WBC championship on the line. It was the most poetic end to a baseball game (or other athletic competition) I have ever seen. 

Ohtani fanned Trout on just four pitches. Now that is impressive enough as is, but when you look into it further, it’s even crazier. 

Through Trout’s 6,174 plate appearances, he has only struck out on three swinging strikes 24 times. Yes, I said 24 times.  

And if that wasn’t enough for Ohtani, he also recorded the hardest hit ball (118.7 MPH), the farthest hit homer (448 ft.), and threw the hardest pitch in the entire tournament (102 MPH). 

We got to see Shohei pumped up, playing his hardest, and at the top of his game in one of the most important games of his career. And it was a thing of beauty.  

Pedro Martinez talked to Ohtani and gave him the praise that every baseball fan has thought, saying, “Shohei, I want to say…on behalf of baseball…we want to thank you for the effort, for the discipline, for everything that you have done for baseball and what you represent for baseball. I just want to personally thank him for all you do. All you do. We are really proud and thankful and grateful for what you do. You are a special human being. So we want to thank you and recognize it.” 

I am so happy that someone like Martinez was able to thank Ohtani for being as fun to watch as he is. Baseball is truly in a ‘golden age’ with fans getting to see stars like Trout and Aaron Judge, but Ohtani is the face of baseball and I think it will stay that way for a while.  

The game is now the most watched WBC game of all time in America with 5.2 million viewers. That was up 69% from the 2017 WBC final which was an all-timer itself.  

Ohtani has gained 3 million Instagram followers since the beginning of March, Lars Nootbarr gained almost a million himself after his performance and bromance with Ohtani. These games were huge for the sport of baseball.  

Mike Trout has already declared that he will play in the games again when they return in 2026 and I expect many others to follow suit. Ohtani will only be 31 at the time of the next WBC and could be performing even better than he did this year.  

I cannot wait until the next WBC as it is consistently the most fun professional baseball tournament in the world. It manages to bring the fun of the Little League World Series to the pros, and we get to see the athletes play the game like kids again.  

We will have to see if the popularity of the WBC translates to MLB regular season games as they begin on the 30th. I really am hopeful that MLB will be able to capitalize on some of the excitement and bring some more eyes to the league and start to turn around the game. 

World Baseball Classic: Better than Major League Baseball?

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Caption: Trea Turner celebrates with Team USA after hitting go-ahead grand slam HR vs. Venezuela.

By Ryan Harless

Ryan Harless is a third-year undergraduate at BGSU from Hillsboro, Ohio. He is majoring in Sport Management with a Journalism Minor. Baseball and golf at all levels are his primary interests but he is also interested in combat sports, hockey, basketball, and football.

March 21, 2023

With the World Baseball Classic (WBC) fully underway we have gotten to see some of the most exciting baseball available today. More people are watching the WBC games than any World Series game ever.

Team USA vs. Great Britain averaged 1.6 million viewers, South Korea vs. Japan averaged 2.7 million, Chinese Taipei’s viewership in the first round was up 151% from the last WBC in 2017.

As a comparison of popularity between the WBC and MLB moments, Shohei Ohtani’s WBC homer off the scoreboard already had 7.5 million views on Twitter (as of March 19). Aaron Judge’s record-breaking 62nd homer only has 4.5 million views and that is months older. Trea Turner’s crucial go ahead grand slam in the WBC amassed 7 million views on Twitter in just 15 hours.

In terms of TV viewership, the South Korea vs. Japan game was watched by nearly 70 million people. The 2022 MLB World Series got 12 million. 62% of homes in Puerto Rico watched their game against the Dominican Republic.

For years, baseball fans like myself have heard that baseball isn’t marketable or that the kids just don’t like baseball anymore. We have dealt with changes made to the game in attempts to make the game “faster and more marketable”.

The WBC has done a great job of proving all of that wrong. The WBC isn’t adhering to MLB rule changes. The teams can use a defensive shift, there is no pitch clock, and the bases are the usual size. Believe it or not, these games have been incredibly exciting to watch.

As I mentioned in a previous article, we are getting to see these players in rare form. They are all having fun with the game. This very well could be as close as we ever get to seeing Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani in playoff baseball and they are getting every bit of excitement out of it.

When watching the games, you might also notice that it isn’t just the players having a blast, but also everyone in the stadium. Fans behind the backstop are imitating the umpire anytime there is a strikeout. Trea Turner said that his grand slam was the biggest home run of his career and that it was the loudest crowd he has ever played before.  

This tournament has only proven that MLB has no clue what they need to do to make baseball a popular mainstream sport again.

Now, of course every regular season game isn’t going to command a million fans. But when the culmination of your entire season is getting blown out of the water regularly by a tournament that only happens every four years, you’re doing something wrong.

Going into this tournament, Shohei Ohtani was by far the most popular MLB player in the world. Since the start of the WBC, he has more than doubled his followers on Instagram, gaining over 1.36 million since the beginning of March.

I believe that MLB is going about improving their game the wrong way. Outside of Ohtani, I really doubt that there is any one player that a majority of the population knows.

The NFL has Partick Mahomes, the NBA has LeBron and Curry, even the NHL has Ovechkin. Who does MLB have that is not only marketable but HAS been marketed in a beneficial way for the league?

I feel that MLB is in a very weird period of time. Attendance for MLB is dropping rapidly and is down by around 15 million just since 2007. If the numbers don’t begin to improve in the next few years, I really have no clue how they can turn things around.

The WBC has proven that baseball is still fun, and also that MLB isn’t the only viable option for good professional baseball. I thoroughly enjoy watching Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) games because the crowds are super into it and the games are just fun. Major League Baseball has a problem with fun and the WBC has made that evident.

The ‘World Cup’ of Baseball

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Caption: Team USA Hoists the WBC trophy after winning in 2017

By Ryan Harless

Ryan Harless is a third-year undergraduate at BGSU from Hillsboro, Ohio. He is majoring in Sport Management with a Journalism Minor. Baseball and golf at all levels are his primary interests but he is also interested in combat sports, hockey, basketball, and football.

February 7, 2023

With Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Opening Day coming up at the end of March, baseball fans have a lot to anticipate. But, even before that, on March 8, the World Baseball Classic (WBC) begins.

The WBC is essentially the World Cup but just for baseball. Twenty teams from around the world compete in a tournament to determine who is best in baseball. There are four pools of five teams each that play a round-robin to determine seeding. The top two teams from each pool advance to the semifinals. Then begins the single-elimination tournament that culminates on March 21 when a champion is crowned.

Pool A consists of Chinese Taipei, the Netherlands, Cuba, Italy, and Panama.

Pool B is Japan, Korea, Australia, China, and the Czech Republic.

Pool C has the USA, Mexico, Colombia, Canada, and Great Britain.

And Pool D rounds out the field with Puerto Rico, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Israel, and Nicaragua.

There are talented stars from the majors on almost every team. Shohei Ohtani (the Angels) is making his WBC debut and will play for Japan while his Angels’ teammate Mike Trout is going to be the captain for Team USA. Yu Darvish (Padres) will be joining Ohtani on Team Japan as well.

Team USA boasts many all-stars including Mookie Betts (Dodgers), Paul Goldschmidt (Cardinals), and Pete Alonso (the Mets). The most interesting team, in my opinion, is the Dominican Republic as almost their whole team is full of bona fide stars: Julio Rodriguez (the Mariners), Jose Ramirez (the Guardians), Juan Soto (the Padres), Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. (Blue Jays), and Sandy Alcantara (Marlins) just to name a few.  

Of the first round matchups, I’m most excited for Team USA vs. Team Great Britain. After Team USA struggled to be competitive in the 2022 FIFA World Cup, I would like to see the USA get payback.

Of the round-robin play, there are a few games that I would consider must-see-TV. I think that Cuba vs. Italy will be a great game. Cuba has Luis Robert and Yoan Moncada (both of the Chicago White Sox) while Italy, which is managed by Mike Piazza, has MLB stars Trey Mancini (Cubs) and Brandon Nimmo (the Mets).

In Pool D, Puerto Rico vs. the Dominican Republic should be an amazing game with heaps of MLB talent on both sides. Puerto Rico has Marcus Stroman (Cubs), Edwin Diaz and Francisco Lindor (both of the Mets).

My prediction for the championship game is the Dominican Republic vs. Team Japan. I would love to see Ohtani on the mound against the stacked roster of Dominican sluggers.

Many games of the 2023 WBC are going to look like All-Star games featuring MLB players as well as stars of the past and future. The WBC really encompasses everything that makes baseball fun to watch. It is a serious competition, but has the nostalgic feel that helped players fall in love with baseball in the first place. Take Adam Jones’ dramatic catch (for Team USA) of what appeared to be a home run off the bat of Orioles’ teammate Manny Machado in the semifinal of the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

We only get to see these stars in rare form like this every four years and we haven’t gotten to see it since 2017 due to COVID. I’m very excited to see all the players having a blast and playing the game they have loved since they were kids.