A few weeks ago, scouts were comparing Shohei Ohtani’s offensive game to high school hitters. And, while that’s probably a bit extreme, Ohtani did look very rough at the dish in Spring Training.
Well, he’s certainly looked capable as a hitter so far in the majors. Ohtani crushed his third homer of the season on Friday night, in just his 15th plate appearance on the season. Like his homer against elite starter Corey Kluber earlier in the week, Ohtani went oppo, but this one was an absolute blast.
According to Statcast, this Ohtani homer went 449 feet and had an exit velocity of 112.4-mph:
https://twitter.com/statcast/status/982454308145893376
The league will definitely find whatever holes Ohtani has and he’s not going to keep crushing at this rate, but this is one hell of a start. And the bat was viewed as just a bonus more than anything when it comes to Ohtani, whose real value is with his ace-capable arm on the mound.
