“It’s crazy to be able to have [him] be a good pitcher and, on top of that, be able to produce at the plate. It’s not very common.”
But if you think those words came out of the Brewers’ clubhouse after they were swept out of the NLCS by the reigning World Series champions, you would be mistaken.
Those words weren’t spoken Friday or last week or even within the last decade.
Ohtani, then just 20 years old, was likely the most famous player in Nippon Professional Baseball already. His fastball could touch 101 mph. His home run power was legit. Ohtani drew plenty of interest from MLB clubs coming out of high school in Iwate, Japan, but he decided to sign with the Nippon-Ham Fighters because they granted him his wish of playing on both sides of the ball.
“I wanted to go [to MLB] at first, but it became a decision,” Ohtani said in 2014. “The Fighters let me be a two-way player. Playing both was more attractive to me.”
Ohtani went 11-4 with a 2.61 ERA over 155 1/3 innings during the 2014 season, much of which he spent as still a teenager. He also hit 10 homers and had an .842 OPS in 234 plate appearances as a corner outfielder.
But to many MLB fans at this time, Ohtani was just a name. Until the 2014 Japan All-Star Series.
Every two years from 1986-92, and again from 1996-2006, Major League Baseball sent players overseas to play against an NPB All-Star team. In 2014, instead of facing All-Stars from Japan’s top league, MLB players faced its national team — Samurai Japan — in a five-game series, along with two exhibitions.
Reaching 98 mph on the radar gun, Ohtani induced flyouts from Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar and Astros outfielder Dexter Fowler. He ended his one inning of work by getting the Rays’ Ben Zobrist to ground out to first.
“He’s young, but he didn’t look scared at all,” Rockies first baseman Justin Morneau said then of Ohtani. “He was attacking. I think at his age, to be able to throw that hard and throw the ball over the plate is the most important thing. If you can locate and throw that hard, you can be as dominant a pitcher as anybody.”
A few days later, Morneau got an early up-close look at that dominance.
Ohtani, who didn’t hit during the series, was the starting pitcher for the fifth and final game on Nov. 18 in Sapporo. After issuing a leadoff walk to Astros star Jose Altuve, the next three batters Ohtani faced were Dodgers sensation Yasiel Puig, the four-time All-Star and 2006 AL MVP Morneau and Rays franchise player Evan Longoria.
Ohtani also got Royals star Salvador Perez to ground into a double play in the second inning, then after allowing two runs in the third inning, he worked out of a bases-loaded jam by blowing a 95 mph fastball past Cleveland’s Carlos Santana and striking out Perez.
“He was the best,” Escobar said of Ohtani after the Japan All-Star Series finale. “He’s throwing 95 and down in the zone. That’s tough.”
Ohtani’s overall results were mixed in Japan’s 3-1 loss: Four innings with two earned runs allowed on six hits, two walks, a wild pitch and a hit-by-pitch. But his seven strikeouts proved that he was already good enough to miss bats at the highest level of the sport. We just wouldn’t see it until more than three years later.
“He’s what, 20 years old?” said Shoemaker in 2014. “That’s impressive enough. Let alone that he has that kind of an arm. Maybe he can be a two-way player.”
