These two parties need to divorce. The Los Angeles Angels really need to move on from Shohei Ohtani and let him walk into free agency as the superstar pitcher and DH has now undergone his second Tommy John surgery.
They should have traded him for some value back, but now they just need to cut ties altogether.
Despite being the most talented player in all of the MLB right now, Shohei Ohtani really should move on from the Angels (and vice versa) as not only has their pair’s partnership not resulted in even a single playoff berth, but now Ohtani has undergone his second Tommy John surgery on his throwing elbow. And, to be honest, I really fear for the Angels if they are stupid and give Ohtani a $500M+ contract to stay.
Now, just to clarify my position, if Ohtani never got hurt and still pitched lights out for the rest of the Angels season, I’d continue to argue that the Angels should move on from Ohtani. Obviously, if I was in charge of the Angels, I would have traded Ohtani at the trade deadline when his trade value was sky high, and he had no injury concerns about his pitching arm.
And, if Ohtani never got hurt and we still found ourselves in this situation, I’d sign Ohtani to a short-term deal (or long term if that helped the deal go through) and then dish him out to a contender as soon as possible. However, that is just not possible now as not only have the Angels lost all of their leverage over dealing Ohtani but resigning him to the $500M+ he is bound to want is akin to playing Russian Roulette.
Sure, a healthy, all-firing Ohtani is one of the best players in baseball (and the best in my opinion) as he finished his season with 135 batting starts, 102 runs, 151 hits, 26 doubles, 91 walks, a .304 batting average, and an AL-leading 44 home runs (and he hasn’t played a game since September 3rd), while he made 23 pitching stars, had a record of 10-5, a 3.14 ERA (which would be 8th best in the MLB right now if he pitched more innings), he pitched 132 innings, he had 167 strikeouts, he only allowed 50 runs, he had an opposing player batting average of .184, and he pitched a complete game that ended in a shutout.
Obviously, as you can see, Ohtani is an all-star on both sides of the field, he would have been the unanimous AL MVP if he didn’t get hurt and he’s still probably going to receive 90% of the votes even with his injury, he’s going to win the Outstanding DH award, and he might have had a shot at the AL Cy Young award if he stayed healthy and kept up with the other great pitchers innings count.
And he would have more than deserved a record-breaking $500M+ contract…but now it’s just too risky to give him one.
Yes, Tommy John surgery is not nearly as devastating and career-ending as it was back in the day as Justin Verlander showed last season by winning the AL Cy Young and World Series with the Houston Astros after getting the surgery, but he’s a special case a lot of pitchers never fully recover from the surgery. And that goes 100X over for pitchers who had the surgery twice…as Ohtani now has had.
Back in 2018 and his rookie season in the MLB, Ohtani suffered nearly the same injury as he has now with him missing the most of 2018 and all of 2019 before he eventually returned to pitching in 2020, while he’s now expected to miss all of 2024 and return to pitching in 2025. That’s a long time to not pitch when you’re nearing 31 years old as Ohtani will be in 2025.
I’m not saying Ohtani should be lowballed and given something less than what Judge got this past offseason (as he’s just as talented and capable at the batter’s box as the Yankees slugger), but a 10-year, $500M deal is just far too much of a risk for a pitcher that may never pitch again.
And, as in the case for the Angels, the team just needs to completely rebuild and tear down the crapshow that has been built these last few years. And, yes, that includes moving on from Shohei Ohtani.
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