Could Shohei Ohtani still resume 50-50?

Miami – Surprise, surprise. Shohei Ohtani continues history.

A season after having become the first player in the history of the MLB to count 50 interceptions and 50 circuits, the superstar of the dodgers is on the way to start again.

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Tuesday against the Marlins, ohtani has changed another long ball in Loandepot Park. The explosion was the sixth of his career in seven games in the dome of southern Florida. Tuesday's moon shot came a day after the triple MVP lacé the Home Run Loandepot n ° 5, A laser of 117.9 MPH in the enclosure of the lifts. In particular, the two taters were deliciously different varieties, their apexs at 65 feet from each other.

Asked his reflections on the latest work of Béguin d'Ohtani, the Dodgers skipper, Dave Roberts, said: “It was great. Shohei, he feels really good in this stadium.”

The Dodgers, playing without Mookie Betts (scheduled for the day, although he struck the blow) and Teoscar Hernández (injury list) finally lost the Tuesday competition 5-4 on a 10th round step. This is equivalent to a slowdown for the best team in baseball. But in the world of Ohtani, the night has carried a little meaning-that is to say if you care about round numbers.

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Ohtani's large high target fly was its 10th of the year. He also has 10 interceptions in the season. This means that a year after having created the 50-50 club, Ohtani reached 10-10 even faster this time. During its first 34 games in 2024, the DODGers DH had “only” eight circuits and seven interceptions. But recently, Ohtani led a hot sequence, with a 1,299 OPS in his last 11 games.

“I feel quite balanced overall, and I let the body take over,” Ohtani told journalists after the team interpreter Will Ireton. “And you know, the only adjustment I make right now is whether I hit it to center the field or shoot or go the other way.”

Ohtani only missed two games this season, both for the birth of his first child with his wife Mamiko Tanaka. So, then Tuesday was his 34th game, it was 36th of Dodgers. This means that if Ohtani plays in each remaining competition – which seems unlikely, even if he only stops three times in 2024 – he would finish 160 games played. At its current rate of 0.294 circuits and flights per game, Ohtani concluded the season with 47 interceptions and 47 circuits.

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June 16 of last year – Dodgers Game No. 73 – Ohtani had 19 circuits and 15 interceptions. The next day, the Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts, moved the Japanese dynamo to the head point. This change turned out to be good. Ohtani's numbers, already superb, skyrocketing, while sliding 44 bags and had timed 35 balls long throughout the last 89 games of the season.

That is to say that even if Ohtani is currently slightly behind the 50-50 rhythm, there are reasons to believe that he will pick up things.

Before the 2023 season, MLB instituted a handful of changes in rules oriented towards incitement to stolen bases. In the so-called “high-base era”, thefts have gradually increased from month to month during the season. It is not by chance. The hot weather probably makes players more submissive and arranged to risk a stolen base. And more inexperienced launchers, less able to control runners, tend to make more appearances during the summer months.

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This trend is also true for the offense in general. In the past two seasons, the prices of Home Run have increased in July and August compared to April and May. This also has to do with warmer conditions, which help the ball. In addition, launchers generally get tired more quickly when you work under the summer sun, which makes them more likely to offer an average average cookie.

But while time is on the side of Ohtani, a new dynamic could start to work against its quest 50-50, which did not hamper it last season: its imminent return to the mound.

Ohtani underwent his second career in career in September 2023, and his recovery process was slower than much planned. This probably has more to do with the immense offensive value it offers to Dodgers than any major physical reverse. However, 20 months withdrawn from the operating room, Ohtani has not yet thrown his cursor and has not yet faced live strikers.

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While his return from pitching progresses and increases during the summer months, it could take time, energy and concentration far from his strike exploits. Of course, Ohtani has changed expectations and silenced skeptics before, but there is a reason why Los Angeles is extremely careful with his superstar. The concerns about how his body will react to such a toll is legitimate, even if Ohtani has already overcome such obstacles.

It is therefore possible that Ohtani can start back from its basic aggressiveness when approaching rotation. Any decrease in Home Run, however, would obviously be more a side effect than a strategy.

At the same time, even if a second trip to club 50-50 escapes Ohtani in 2025, he feels like a quasi-glass to exceed the 40-40 mark, which only six MLB players have ever accomplished. Ohtani, in another impressive first, would be the first player to do it twice.