Shohei Ohtani, the National League's home run champion, leads with 23 homers this season. With a career OPS of 1.008, he made MLB history as the first player to achieve 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season. Initially regarded merely as a pitcher, he was given the chance to hit by the Angels, unlike what other teams might have done. Despite injuries impacting his pitching career, Ohtani's preference appears to lean towards hitting, revealing his evolution as a multi-faceted player in today's game.
"At the beginning of his career, when he first came to the U.S., people didn't think he was a hitter. They said, 'He's just a pitcher. He's not going to make it as a hitter.'"
"If he would have originally signed with the Dodgers out of high school, he never would have been a hitter."
"As he went along through, I got the sense that he really liked hitting a lot more. Maybe it was just because he kept getting hurt as a pitcher."
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