With The Appearance of Ohtani

Shohei Ohtani, 30, a transfer student, has joined the LA Dodgers' training camp. He wore blue sweatshirts symbolizing the Dodgers and played with his teammates at Carmelback Ranch-Glendale in Phoenix, Arizona. Ohtani, who had been training individually at Dodger Stadium in his home stadium after signing a contract, will now go through a period of adjustment to his new team by training with Dodgers players.

The U.S. local media also paid keen attention to Ohtani's every move. After finishing his training, Ohtani interviewed local reporters. At the meeting, Ohtani said, "I'm in a new team, so I'm trying to act like a rookie. I have to get along with everyone. I'll try to get along with my teammates as well."

Manager Dave Roberts, who got to work with Ohtani, said, "He pinches my cheek while watching Otani wear the Dodgers uniform." Roberts has taken the helm of the Dodgers since 2016 and has won 753 games 443 losses for seven years. He has worked with many superstars so far, but no player has impressed more than Ohtani.

The Dodgers has poured enormous amounts of money into recruiting Ohtani. The Dodgers signed a 10-year, 700 million-dollar contract with Ohtani. It broke the record in the history of professional sports. Earlier, the highest amount in sports in North America was 450 million dollars for 10 years that the Kansas City Chiefs of the U.S. National Football League signed with Patrick Mahomes, and the highest amount in the Major League was 426.5 million dollars for 12 years that Mike Trout signed with the Los Angeles Angels.

Attention was focusing on Ohtani, but there is another player who joined the Dodgers with a high salary. It is Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a Japanese pitcher. Yamamoto is a right-handed pitcher who dominated the Japanese pro baseball league with fastballs, cut fastballs, curves, and sliders exceeding 150 kilometers. The Dodgers has awarded a total of 350 million U.S. dollars for 12 years to Yamamoto, the "biggest fish for FA pitchers." Although the rookie has yet to debut in the Major League, the Dodgers was confident that Yamamoto would succeed.

According to the U.S. media The Athletic, Roberts said, "Otani is a special player. And people are also interested in Yamamoto. They will make us a much better club," expressing expectations for Ohtani and Yamamoto.

Star players of the Dodgers, including Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, were also happy to play with Ohtani and Yamamoto. "Players such as Betts and Freeman were truly happy to play with Ohtani at the Dodgers Fest, which was an event for Dodgers fans," said The Athletic. "If Dodgers performs well with Ohtani, the excitement will not cool down."

This season, Ohtani will only play as a batter. He underwent Tommy John surgery last year. If he successfully undergoes rehabilitation, he will be able to take the mound as a pitcher in 2025. Ohtani also had experience in rehabilitating his elbow while playing as a batter in 2019. At that time, Ohtani had 18 homers, 62 RBIs and 51 runs batted in at 0.286 on-base plus 0.343 OPS on-base plus slugging in 106 games as a batter. He will undergo the same process again this time.

Ohtani said, "This is not my first time to rehabilitate while preparing for the season. I did it in 2019. I know how to do it. This is my second time, so I think it will be easier. When I was batting training, I swung at 100 percent. The next step is to hit during live pitching," he said, expressing confidence in his physical condition.

Ohtani is in a situation where he can only focus on batting. There are also expectations that he will be able to achieve a better batting performance than when he also worked as a pitcher. Ohtani said, "I am confident that I will be able to achieve a good performance in my first year as a Dodgers pitcher.

This winter, the Dodgers invested more than 1 trillion won 982 million U.S. dollars to reinforce its military capabilities. It also recruited Ohtani and Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Manuel Margot, and Teoscar Hernandez. Indeed, the Dodgers has built a luxurious corps.

Expectations are high that this year will definitely be different. According to the Los Angeles Times, President Andrew Friedman said, "We had a lot of good luck this offseason. Until now, however, we have seen many teams win in the offseason. However, the most important step is the six-week period that will take place in the upcoming regular season and postseason."

Meanwhile, Ohtani, who is training normally, plans to play in the San Diego Padres and MLB World Tour Seoul Series at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on March 20. Some argued that Ohtani would not participate in the Seoul Series because he is recovering from his injury, but Ohtani himself expressed his intention to participate. 안전 토토사이트