After Los Angeles superstar Shohai Otani garnered his 1,000th career hit on Wednesday with a two-run home run in three innings, his response was to strike out to the side as he returned to the mound at the fourth top.
The Unicorn allowed two hits, scored a run they scored in four innings, and pitched a season-high eight strikeout in the eighth start of 2025.
Baseball business president Andrew Friedman claimed that this was just the beginning, according to Otani.
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“I think it’s about evaluating after every outing,” Friedman said. “We do this in a very systematic way and we continue to build it, and we don’t know where it will stop, and we will continue to monitor how he holds his stuff and how his body is responding.
“But we want to make sure that in his first year in a very systematic way. He has a pitching design for the last eight years, and I want to make this as much as I can.”
Otani’s slow play on his way home tested the patience of many around the baseball world, but it has proven to be worth it at a glance.
When the three MVPs first began their progression to return to the mound, expectations were quickly built, but expectations were always to take one pitch at a time. If he sets out for a rehabilitation assignment in Triple A, it is very unwise to lose a bat like Otani, so the rehabilitation assignment is essentially a form of his systematic return.
The immediate hope is that Otani can still pitch the same sharp and effective innings in October, but Friedman looks further down the road in response to the two-way star’s wish.
The novelty of watching Otani crush a home run and then attack the side is certainly unique, but it could potentially become a reality for the for most of the next decade.
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Photo credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Immagn Image
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