Why Aren't There More Two-Way Players Like Ohtani?
We salute Shohei Ohtani for putting together another incredible two-way season in 2023 and examine why there aren't more two-way players in pro ball.
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
. . . What Shohei Ohtani has done as a two-way player over several seasons in the Major Leagues is unprecedented. Here are a few notable stats that illustrate how unique his accomplishments are, per MLB’s Sarah Langs:
Ohtani is the only player in MLB history to hit 30 homers and win 10 games in a single season — and he’s done it twice, in 2022 and 2023.
Ohtani is currently tied for the MLB lead in home runs (43) and holds the MLB lead among qualified pitchers for lowest opponents’ batting average (.185).
Ohtani is the only player in MLB history to hit more than 11 home runs and throw a complete-game shutout in the same season.
Ohtani is the only player in MLB history to hit more than nine home runs and strike out over 100 batters in a season — and he’s done it three times, in 2021, 2022, and 2023. In all three seasons, he hit at least 34 home runs and struck out at least 156 batters.
Leading Off
Will American Baseball Ever Produce An Ohtani?
By Bill Pruden
At the outset, I want to acknowledge my deep admiration, indeed wonderment, for all that Shohei Ohtani has done and is doing. Despite living in an area with no Major League Baseball team within a six-hour drive, I have still been fortunate enough to see him play in person on multiple occasions, the most recent being less than a month ago against the Atlanta Braves when he offered a seemingly typical performance. Against the best team in baseball, Ohtani was walked intentionally, got two hits, and had a home run “stolen” from him when center fielder Michael Harris II scaled the center-field wall to take it away, all in a Los Angeles Angels victory. And like many fans, central to my morning is a check of the Angels’ box score to check on the latest effort of this historic figure.
That being said, with each Ohtani accomplishment, I find myself pondering the question of why Ohtani has been able to do things that no other Major Leaguer, and in particular American-born players, has done. Is it just him, or is there something more? As a long-time baseball fan and teacher, whose career as an educator has included multiple coaching stints in an array of sports, time as an athletic director, and being the father of four children who played sports through high school, I wonder if the way Americans approach sports does not limit the chances of developing a homegrown Ohtani.
So, what exactly do I mean by “the way we approach sports”? In a word, it comes down to an unfortunate tendency towards specialization. At the risk of sounding like the old man that I am, I remember a time when there were limited organized sports out of season and fewer travel teams. Rabid athletes often overdosed on self-organized pick-up games where you did as much as you could for as long as you could on any day in which school did not intrude.
The emphasis was on the present, not the next club level or the possible scholarship down the road. And at the high school level, the best athletes were multi-sport performers, with three seasons as common as not. It was a world that bears little or no resemblance to the modern era that features travel teams, outside meets and tournaments, and year-round programs that may conflict with high school schedules, as well as single-sport summer camps that serve as much as try-out camps as playing opportunities.
All of these efforts tend to limit the exposure to all that is available, not to mention often result in burnout. However unconsciously, sports as big business has trickled down to the lowest levels. Programs are often adult-driven and focused on the next level. Too often, the pure joy of playing is lost.
In baseball, that specialization has led to the divide between pitchers and hitters. In the Major Leagues, it is not an accident that the pitchers and catchers arrive at Spring Training at a different time than the position players. And in a game that accepts change only begrudgingly, the American League’s adoption of the designated hitter a half century ago took away a central part of the game that every pitcher had grown up with. Many did not like it.
Over the years, there have been many pitchers who were good enough hitters to pinch-hit, although as the DH started to be used earlier in pre-professional leagues and players – usually with too much adult/coach influence – decided they were pitchers and the other part of the game did not matter, their number dwindled. And there have been more than a few National League hurlers who bemoaned being traded to the junior circuit where the DH prevented them from doing something they liked, something they believed was part of being a complete baseball player, and in some cases something they did pretty well.
Indeed, while the DH and increasing early specialization has limited the number, when I was growing up there were pitchers who regularly pinch-hit and were a real threat at bat. What if the credible hitters of that era had been given the same opportunities to develop their whole game as Ohtani has? If their hitting had not been put on the back burner, kept alive only because of their pride and desire to do it, would Bob Gibson, Don Drysdale, or Gary Peters, to name just three from the 1960s, been able to be an Ohtani of that different era?
Or think about Rick Ankiel, who from 1999-2013 crafted two seemingly separate careers, the first as a pitcher and then later as an outfielder. It was a different situation, but an ability to do both was there and raises questions about what might have been had he tried to combine them.
Obviously, there is no easy or definitive answer. Maybe this is a reality, like many in modern baseball, that is numbers and money driven. But I cannot help but wonder if a different approach in the early going, a different mindset directing the path taken by young athletes, and baseball players in particular, might not yield different results.
Indeed, a part of me wonders if, for all Ohtani’s obvious physical gifts, it is not his mindset that truly sets him apart. In the same way that a huge piece of the challenge faced by a track and field decathlete is based in their ability to focus on each individual event, clearly that is a central part of what Ohtani has mastered. But it may even be more than that. Physical gifts notwithstanding, crucial to his becoming the singular player he is was his mental strength and his determination to pursue that path.
In its own way, Ohtani’s experience may offer the best answer, and one from which all can learn. Quite simply, you don’t know what you can do until you try, and a willingness to allow something to happen is a necessary first step to making it happen. In Ohtani’s case, he was not going to be deterred – and the rest is history.
As the baseball world looks ahead to his unprecedented free agency this coming offseason, it is worth remembering that back in 2012 when Ohtani first arrived on the scene in Japan, it was reported that his preferred MLB team was the Los Angeles Dodgers. So why did he end up with the Angels? Well, at least part of the reason is because the Dodgers made it clear they would not let him play both ways. One guesses they have changed their mind by now. The question is whether other teams – at the MLB level or below – will be equally open minded in the future.
Bill Pruden is a high school history and government teacher who has been a baseball fan for over six decades. He has been writing about baseball--primarily through SABR sponsored platforms, but also in some historical works--for about a decade. His email address is: courtwatchernc@aol.com.