Ohtani focus on elbow procedure as year ends
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Shohei Ohtani underwent an MRI on Friday afternoon that showed lingering irritation in his right oblique, prompting him to shut down his season as a hitter and shift his focus to treating the torn ulnar collateral ligament that previously ended his season as a pitcher, Los Angeles Angels general manager Perry Minasian said Saturday.
“I don’t have details on the procedure,” Minasian said, “but obviously he wants to get that as quick as he can and start getting ready for ’24.”
Ohtani, who’ll be a free agent at season’s end, plans on continuing to hit and pitch down the road, and his agent, Nez Balelo of CAA, previously said he will be ready to at least hit “when the bell rings” at the start of the 2024 season.
Ohtani could use platelet-rich plasma and stem-cell therapy to treat the tear in his right UCL, but it seems more likely that he’ll go the surgical route, either with Tommy John surgery or an internal bracing procedure or some combination of both. Any invasive procedure would probably rule out Ohtani as a pitcher in 2024.
“Shohei — he’s one of a kind,” Minasian said. “Great player, great person. I think anybody that knows him, has a chance to talk to him, be around him — he’s a team guy. He’s a pretty special guy, he’s a pretty special player, and it’s been a pleasure to get to know him these last three years and hopefully he’s here for a long time.”
Ohtani, 29, suffered an oblique strain during a rare session of outdoor batting practice on Sept. 4 and proceeded to miss the next 11 games. He left Angel Stadium at around 4 p.m. PT on Friday to undergo an MRI, Minasian said, then received his results early in the Angels’ ensuing game against the Detroit Tigers. Media members entered the home clubhouse at Angel Stadium later that night to find that Ohtani’s locker had been mostly cleared out, creating a stir on social media that Minasian tried his best to diffuse during his news conference on Saturday.
“I think in his mind he thought there was a possibility for a procedure today, and that’s why he packed,” Minasian said. “Nothing malicious. There’s no story here. He’s so focused on, ‘Season’s over, I gotta get ready for ’24,’ and that was what his mindset was. He’s planning on being here the last homestand. He’s going to be here today, tomorrow.”
Ohtani put together another spectacular season and appears to be a lock to win the American League’s Most Valuable Player Award for the second time in three years. He slashed .304/.412/.654 while leading the AL in home runs (44), walks (91) and total bases (325) as a hitter and went 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA in 132 innings as a pitcher, striking out 167 batters and issuing 55 walks. Despite pitching and hitting for only about five out of six months, Ohtani’s 9.0 FanGraphs wins above replacement easily leads the majors.
The Angels, however, are barreling toward their eighth consecutive losing season, which would set a franchise record. Despite also employing Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon, both of whom have been beset by injuries these past three years, the Angels haven’t even been relevant in the stretch run of the regular season in their six years with Ohtani.
Asked about the chances of re-signing him as a free agent, Minasian said: “That would be a question for him. But I think he really enjoys his time here. Obviously, he’s had three of the greatest — if not the greatest — years any player has ever had. I think he enjoys his teammates and the area and the fan base and the organization. There’s a lot of trust and a lot of communication. I hope he’s here for a long time.”
The Angels, under then-GM Billy Eppler and former manager Mike Scioscia, recruited Ohtani out of Japan in December 2017 but got only half a season out of him as a two-way player within the first two years. Ohtani was diagnosed with a Grade 2 tear of his right UCL in June 2018 and was recommended Tommy John surgery in September, after PRP and stem-cell therapy did not take. He continued to hit through the end of the season and underwent Tommy John surgery in October, which kept him out of the lineup until May of the following season.
Ohtani struggled mightily as a two-way player during the COVID-19-shortened season of 2020, then put together a three-year stretch that will go down as one of the most impressive in baseball history. As a hitter, Ohtani slashed .277/.379/.585 with 124 home runs, 290 RBIs and 57 stolen bases in 447 games. As a pitcher, he accumulated 34 wins and posted a 2.84 ERA in 428⅔ innings, striking out 542 batters in the process. If not for a record-breaking home run season from Aaron Judge in 2022, he would have won three consecutive MVPs.
“He’s a great player,” Minasian said. “Great player that can do things on a baseball field that nobody else can do. As good of a player as he is, the thing I appreciate the most is the preparation part of it. The want-to, the care. This is somebody that puts everything he has into it, and I have a ton of respect for that.”
Ohtani hasn’t spoken publicly since Aug. 9, his last full start before learning about his UCL tear when he next took the mound 14 days later. Ohtani found out about the injury shortly after an early exit from the first game of a doubleheader and was in the lineup for Game 2. He then accompanied the Angels on a three-city road trip through New York, Philadelphia and Oakland, serving as the team’s designated hitter throughout. The oblique injury occurred hours before the first game of the ensuing homestand.
Ohtani continually worked to be in the lineup nonetheless, getting scratched on a couple of occasions. Earlier this week, while the Angels were in Seattle, Minasian saw him in the batting cages “taking massive hacks” to test the injury as much as possible.
“He wants to play,” Minasian said, “and that’s what we love about him.”
Ohtani’s elbow procedure will be decided on between him and his representation at CAA. The Angels, who will technically be his employer for only 2½ more weeks, haven’t really been involved in that process.
“There’s discussions, and once they lock something down, there will be communication,” Minasian said. “Sho and his group will handle that, determine what they wanna do and how they wanna do it, who they wanna do it with, and I respect that. I’ll obviously have that information at some point. But definitely respect his decision.”
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Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior Writer
DANIA BEACH, Fla. — While discussing the opportunity that awaits Penn State in the College Football Playoff, coach James Franklin said Wednesday that the showdown against Notre Dame is about “representing our schools and our conferences.”
Franklin then caught himself, realizing Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman was sitting just to his right.
“Or our conference, excuse me,” Franklin said.
Penn State will be representing the Big Ten against FBS independent Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl on Thursday night (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Hard Rock Stadium.
The Nittany Lions reached the Big Ten championship game before earning a No. 6 seed in the first 12-team CFP, while the Fighting Irish made the playoff as an at-large and earned the No. 7 seed despite playing in one fewer game.
Franklin said he thinks a larger CFP ultimately requires more uniformity around college football, including every team to be part of a conference and playing the same number of league games. Notre Dame, one of three remaining FBS independents, sees its status as central to the school’s identity and has resisted chances to join the Big Ten and other conferences over the years. The Fighting Irish compete in the ACC for most of their other major sports, and they have a scheduling agreement with the ACC in football.
“It should be consistent across college football,” Franklin said. “This is no knock at [Freeman] or Notre Dame, but I think everybody should be in a conference. I think everybody should play a conference championship game, or nobody should play a conference champion championship game. I think everybody should play the same number of conference games.”
Penn State reached the CFP by playing nine conference games as well as the Big Ten championship game against No. 1 Oregon, which defeated the Nittany Lions 45-37 on Dec. 7. The Big 12 also has maintained a nine-game league slate, while the SEC and ACC have stayed at eight conference games.
Franklin, who coached at Vanderbilt before Penn State, praised the SEC for remaining at eight league games, which the league’s coaches wanted. The SEC has repeatedly considered going to nine league games during Franklin’s time in the Big Ten.
“I was not a math major at East Stroudsburg, but just the numbers are going to make things more challenging if you’re playing one more conference game,” he said.
Franklin also highlighted other areas of the sport that could be made more uniform, including starting the season a week earlier to ease the strain of playing more games with an expanded playoff. He reiterated his desire to appoint a college football commissioner unaffiliated with a school or a conference, and once again mentioned longtime coach and current ESPN analyst Nick Saban as an option, along with former Washington and Boise State coach Chris Petersen, now a Fox college football analyst, and Dave Clawson, who recently stepped down as Wake Forest’s coach.
“We need somebody that is looking at it from a big-picture perspective,” Franklin said.
Freeman acknowledged that Notre Dame prides itself on its independence. He said the team uses the weekend of conference championships, when they’re guaranteed not to be playing, as another open week for recovery and other priorities.
Notre Dame ended the regular season Nov. 30 and did not play again until Dec. 20, when it hosted Indiana in a first-round CFP game. In helping craft the format for the 12-team CFP, former Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick agreed that if the Irish were selected, they would not be eligible to earn a bye into the quarterfinals.
Freeman noted that he doesn’t have a strong opinion on whether college football needs more uniformity.
“I’m a guy that just [thinks], ‘Tell us what we’re doing and let’s go, and you move forward,'” Freeman said. “I love where we’re at right now. [Athletic director] Pete Bevacqua and our Notre Dame administration will continue to make decisions that are best for our program.”
Franklin said his desire for greater consistency stems from the CFP selection process and the difficulty of committee members to sort through teams with vastly different paths and profiles, and determine strength of schedule and other factors.
“How do you put those people that are in that room to make a really important decision that impacts the landscape of college football, and they can’t compare apples to apples or oranges to oranges?” Franklin said. “I think that makes it very, very difficult.”
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