Shohei Ohtani’s (29, Los Angeles Angels) elbow has been a hot topic in Major League Baseball lately. His dislocated elbow has been the subject of intense media scrutiny ahead of his historic free agency.
Ohtani started the first game of a doubleheader against Cincinnati at Angels Stadium on April 24 (Korea time), but after 1⅓ innings, he was pulled after feeling something wrong with his arm. The team initially announced that it was arm fatigue. Ohtani seemed to be fine. After a short break, he was back in the lineup for game two of the doubleheader, but then came the big announcement. The club announced that Ohtani had damaged ligaments in his elbow.
It was a ligament injury that could not be fixed with an injection. He will need elbow ligament reconstruction surgery (Tommy John surgery). Ohtani previously underwent surgery for a torn elbow ligament in 2018, shortly after breaking into the major leagues. As a result, he didn’t pitch a single game in 2019, appeared in two games in 2020, and started pitching normally in 2021.
This means that if Ohtani has post-season surgery, he won’t be able to pitch in 2024 and won’t be able to pitch normally until the second half of 2025. Local media outlets are debating whether Ohtani will have the surgery, and if so, how players who have had a second elbow surgery have come back, whether Ohtani will be able to pitch normally, and how this elbow issue will affect his free agent value.
There was another controversy after the game against the New York Mets on April 27. After the game, Angels general manager Perry Minasian publicly stated that “Ohtani’s camp refused to have a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).” The Angels had been criticized for “what they were doing to Otani’s elbow to cause it to be like that,” and Minasian’s public explanation hasn’t calmed the anger of fans.
Ohtani was ejected from the game against Seattle on April 4 with finger cramps. In retrospect, we can deduce that something was wrong with his body. The Angels’ lack of action puts a question mark over the organization’s behavior, which seems to have been left to the player and his agent.
Despite the controversy, Ohtani has remained silent. As a hitter, he continues to play. Even with a sore elbow, he can still hit. On Sunday against the New York Mets, he went 2-for-3 with two doubles, two walks, one RBI, and two runs scored. This included a double that showed off his tremendous bat speed, and a high four-run shot in the eighth inning.
Ohtani continued to hit in 2018 after an elbow injury, and continued to hit in 2019 after undergoing surgery. It’s a right elbow, and Ohtani is a left-handed hitter. Because of this, doctors believe that the right elbow doesn’t fundamentally affect his batting too much. However, he will eventually need elbow surgery to continue his pitching and hitting duties. The question is when he will decide to have the surgery. Ohtani is still silent.
However, there is a general consensus that he will not be able to pitch for the foreseeable future, which will greatly reduce his free agent value. There are even reports that Ohtani is worth more than $700 million over 12 years if he can pitch and hit. The general consensus is that he’ll take on $500 million in baseball. Whether or not Ohtani returns as a pitcher, this injury is certainly a negative for the total.
Brian Kenney, a panelist on Major League Baseball Network, raised eyebrows when he predicted that Ohtani wouldn’t get more than $400 million. Appearing on a program on Major League Baseball Network on Saturday, Kenney raised eyebrows when he offered a bargain price of $320 million over eight years for a “pitcher who can’t pitch”.온라인카지노
Kenney’s math works. The league’s highest-paid “top five” players have a combined contract total of roughly $285 million, and 14% of that total is $39.9 million. That gives us an average of $40 million per year for Ohtani, multiplied by eight years, and $320 million. That’s just his value as a hitter, not as a pitcher.
This is the same average annual amount as Aaron Judge’s nine-year total of $360 million, who signed a free agent contract last year, but the total is slightly lower. In terms of value as a hitter, that might be true. Ohtani’s career major league OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) is 0.924. Judge is ahead of him at 0.982. Plus, Jersey plays defense. Looking at Ohtani as a hitter alone, Kenny’s analysis suggests that Jersey won’t be easy to pass up.
After all, Ohtani needs to pitch, will have elbow surgery at some point, and is being talked about for a bizarre contract that ties his performance as a pitcher to large incentives. Ohtani’s free agency will be another interesting one, with teams getting all kinds of creative with their contract offers.