The Shohei Ohtani show is headed north

Steve Phillips

TSN Baseball Insider

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Get ready Blue Jays fans, the best player in baseball is coming to town next Tuesday – and Mike Trout will be there too.

The Los Angeles Angels are headed north of the border to Rogers Centre. If you ask some players around the game, the best player in baseball (and the world) isn’t Trout – it’s Shohei Ohtani.

Ohtani dominated the off-season as he was courted by 27 of the 30 MLB clubs.  He ultimately chose the Angels. He was touted as a number-one starter and a number-three hitter. He was a two-way superstar in Japan looking to do the same in the Major Leagues. 

He showed up to spring with extraordinary fanfare but struggled miserably. He looked very hittable as a pitcher, holding a 27.00 ERA in two major-league spring games. He threw only slightly better on the backfields against minor-league hitters.

Offensively, he was only 4-for-32 with no extra base hits and 10 strikeouts. He looked overmatched in all aspects of the game. There was talk of Ohtani starting the season in the minors. Through it all, Ohtani seemed unfazed. He just kept working. The Angels professed their confidence in the young 23-year-old when they broke camp and Ohtani declared he was prepared as well.

That has proven to be completely true. Ohtani’s fastball was clocked at 92-94 miles per hour in spring camp. He is averaging 97.1 mph with his heater so far during the regular season, plus he has shown the ability to put something extra on it when he wants. The ball comes out of his hand free and easy. He has touched 100 mph multiple times. 

His secondary pitches have much more bite on them now, especially his split-finger fastball which is his put-away pitch. It drops off the table and is difficult for hitter to lift. He is 3-1 with a 3.58 ERA as a starter, and has only allowed 23 hits in 32.2 innings. He has allowed 13 walks while striking out 43 opponents. He pitches once a week and won’t likely face the Jays.

Offensively, he has made the adjustments necessary to hit some of the best fastballs in the game. He has the timing and plate discipline of a great hitter. The pitches that dominated him in spring trained have been turned around with high velocity. He’s hitting .321/.360/.617 with four doubles, a triple and six homers. He has shown the ability to use the entire field and hit from line to line.

Ohtani started the season batting eighth in the lineup but has earned the confidence of manager Mike Scioscia and has recently moved to the two-hole behind Trout. Maybe one of the most surprising things about the 6-foot-4, 203-pound two-way star is his speed. He can fly. He is one of the fastest runners in baseball today. There is nothing this guy can’t do.

You know a player is impressive when his opponents are talking about him. Recently, Astros’ ace, Justin Verlander, struck out Ohtani for his 2,500 career strikeout.  Verlander said that he is amazed by Ohtani and some day will be able to tell his grandchildren about how he struck out the Japanese star. 

Pitchers know how tough the game can be and what it takes to be a successful pitcher. Hitters know how hard it is to be a consistent hitter in the majors. Everyone is amazed how Ohtani is making it all look so easy.

Rotation troubles in Toronto

The Blue Jays started the season with big expectations for their starting rotation and hope that the bullpen would be good enough. One could have made the case that the Houston Astros were the only other team in the American League that could match Toronto’s five starters.

Things haven’t quite played out as expected. The Jays starters have struggled, ranked 29th in baseball in ERA. They’re a combined 11-20 with a 5.58 ERA and are averaging just over 5.1 innings per start. In fact, no starter has an ERA below 4.00. This has put immense pressure on the bullpen.

The good news is the bullpen has been up to the challenge. In fact, the bullpen is the reason the Jays are even close to .500 considering how poor the starters have performed. The Jays’ pen is 11-2 with a 3.27 ERA (second best in AL). Good bullpens don’t just hold leads, they also hold deficits, which allow offences a chance to score late and win games. It isn’t the most ideal formula for long-term success but it can help clubs stay afloat until the starting pitching comes around.

Over the past few years, Jays’ manager John Gibbons and pitching coach Pete Walker have had to figure out their bullpen on the fly. They pieced it together during the season; finding the right roles and situations to use their personnel.

I thought that Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro fortified the bullpen with more predictable pitchers this season. Tyler Clippard, John Axford and Seunghwan Oh are all proven relievers who have saved games previously.

Many people believe teams should use their closers in the game’s most critical moment. I disagree because I think pitchers need to know their roles and have a general sense as to the situations they’ll be used in. But I love the idea of having pitchers in the bullpen who have been closers for the manager to use in big situations in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings.

Factor in the growth and development of Ryan Tepera, Aaron Loup and Danny Barnes and Gibbons has depth and balance he needs to have quality arms available every night. This will protect from overuse of any one or two relievers. The other benefit of having former closers in the bullpen is that if your current guy can’t pitch for some reason you still have a guy available who knows how to get the last out of the game.

The Jays’ bullpen also includes a collection of pitchers that offer different looks so hitters can’t focus in on release points. The group also has pitchers that can get both lefties and righties out so Gibbons doesn’t have to make numerous changes.

The Blue Jays are in the middle of the pack in bullpen innings so far, which isn’t bad considering how poorly the starters have thrown. But they are playing with fire by going to the well so often with their pen. Former major league manager Jim Leyland would always say that if you want to have a good bullpen, keep them in the bullpen. Managers with good bullpens use them because they want to, not because they have to.

Gibbons has had to use his pen far more than he would like. That needs to change if the Jays are going to be a true playoff contender. The bullpen has bailed them out in a big way, but you can’t count on this formula for continued sustained success.

Spitting Seeds

- I’m interested to see what Marcus Stroman looks like when he comes back from the disabled list. Looking at old video, I noticed a mechanical flaw that has cropped up again for him. It’s something he did in early 2016 that was corrected and made a huge difference. He maintained his proper mechanics in 2017 and had a great season, but early this year he is out of sync.

Basically, here is what he is doing: when his leg kick comes up in his delivery, his pitching hand is in his glove and they are both moving up toward the sky. This isn’t leaving him the time necessary to get to his release point with his hand on top of his sinker and slider.

Instead, when his leg kick comes up, his pitching hand should be separating from his glove and coming down to start the loop of his arm swing. This allows him to get his hand on top of the pitches.

The cause of his mechanical flaw maybe related to his shoulder fatigue or it may be that he just lost the feel for his delivery. The cause isn’t as important as fixing it.

- Mariners second baseman Robinson Cano was hit by a pitch last week and broke a bone in his pinkie. He underwent surgery on Wednesday to repair the fracture.  It was reported on Tuesday that he was suspended 80 games for violating the Joint Drug Agreement (JDA) for testing positive for a masking agent. As punishment Cano will lose service time and salary (more than $11 million) while on the suspended list. Plus, he isn’t eligible for postseason play.

Cano was already on the disabled list and was thought to be unavailable to the Mariners for about eight weeks. The rules of the JDA state that a player can serve his suspension while on the disabled list. This is a flaw. I believe any player facing suspension should wait until he is healthy before he is suspended. In Cano’s case he wasn’t available to the team and they were shorthanded already. His suspension benefited the club because it freed up $11 million for them to spend to upgrade the team. Nobody should benefit when a player is found cheating.

My solution is to not allow the serving of a suspension while on the DL. Plus, I believe the club should pay the players’ forfeited salary into a fund controlled by MLB and the Players’ Association to educate amateur and professional players on PEDs and a fund to grow the game domestically and internationally. 

- I have to give credit to Joey Votto. Yes, he said some nasty things about Toronto and Canadian baseball in a rant on a podcast this week, but his apology was far better than most professional athletes. Not only did he say he made a mistake and said things he shouldn’t have, but he acknowledged bitterness and jealousy as the reasons why he said what he did. Most professional athletes will say something like, “If anyone was offended by what I said, then I am sorry.” Votto identified what prompted the distorted thinking and words and shared that with us. It actually makes me like him more.