PHOENIX –– Ever since Shohei Ohtani began pitching for the Dodgers for the first time last year, manager Dave Roberts has made a repeated observation.
“When he pitches,” Roberts said earlier this year, “there’s an alter-ego.”
Almost like, when he’s at the mound versus when he’s at the plate, the two-way star takes on two opposite personas.
To Dodgers fans, Ohtani the hitter is a well-known personality by now.
He’s typically stoic, never over-excited, reticent to show much joy or frustration. Only after history-making moments (like his 50/50 home run in 2024) or big postseason swings (like his momentum-shifting blast in that year’s National League Division Series) does he ever offer any type of animated response.
As a pitcher, on the other hand, Ohtani has displayed a wholly different demeanor.
There’s outward intensity. An ever-present edge. And, in the most pivotal moments of almost every outing, an outburst of emotion that is telling of his mindset.
“He’s definitely more fiery [as a pitcher],” pitching coach Mark Prior said. “‘Ornery’ is probably too strong of a word. But there’s definitely more of a burn there. He craves facing the best. He wants to show that he can get the best hitters out. So I definitely think that motivation is behind a lot of it. You see that competitive fire.”
Indeed, already two months into this season, you could put together a highlight reel of Ohtani’s most impassioned reactions to big outs on the bump.
On April 15 in San Francisco, he punctuated a scoreless six-inning start by stranding runners on second and third in his final inning of work –– spinning off the mound with a fist pump and a yell after striking out the final batter he faced on the night.
On May 20, in a hostile environment at San Diego’s Petco Park, he flexed his arms and screamed “Let’s go!” multiple times after escaping a bases-loaded jam with a double-play ball from Fernando Tatis Jr., the last act of a scoreless five-inning start.
Even against the lowly Colorado Rockies last week, the two-way star showed some emotion, dropping a frustrated F-bomb while battling poor command early, then smacking his glove at the end of an eight-pitch strikeout in the final frame of a hitless six-inning performance.
To Prior, it’s nothing out of the ordinary for most big-league starters.
“I like guys who have fiery demeanors on the mound,” he said. “As long as the passion is directed, and you’re able to control those emotions and not get out of your delivery and throws, I think it’s 100% a good thing to have.”
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Seeing it from Ohtani, however, has created an interesting contrast in the way he approaches his dual roles.
“As a pitcher, you control the pace of the game –– you start the whole event, so to speak –– so I think he’s able to channel his emotions a little bit more, have more of a fiery emotion,” Prior noted. “That’s easier to do [while pitching], I would assume, than hitting. Because hitting, you’re having to react [to the pitcher]. So being more aggressive and intense, that probably doesn’t serve you as well.”
This isn’t a new phenomenon for the 31-year-old superstar.
As far back as high school, his coach at Japan’s Hanamaki Higashi, Hiroshi Sasaki, once described the future four-time MVP as a “yakyu shonen” as a hitter; essentially, a boy having fun playing baseball.
Conversely, “when he’s on the mound, he thinks of it as his job,” Sasaki noted, as he told the LA Times ahead of Ohtani’s arrival in the majors in 2017. “It’s his business, his true work.”
Ohtani was asked directly about his differing personas following that outing in San Diego last month. He explained that the dynamic was rooted in the contextual importance he sees in each of his jobs.
“A batter doesn’t know if one home run will really contribute to a victory,” he said in Japanese. “But a starting pitcher knows that if they pitch six or seven scoreless innings, the majority of games will be won. So I think the feelings about a game are different.”
Come Wednesday night, it will all be on display again, with Ohtani scheduled to hit and pitch against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.
Expect more composure in the batter’s box, and emotion on the hill.
“Ever since we’ve seen him pitch last year, it’s definitely more fiery, competitive,” Prior said. “Like, ‘I’m gonna come after you.’ Where, hitting, because he does it every single day, there needs to be a little bit more of a slower, chill pace.”