WASHINGTON — Even President Trump, it seems, professes to be a Shohei Ohtani fan.
So common is Ohtani’s movie star that, in the course of the Dodgers’ go to to the White Home on Monday to have fun their 2024 World Collection championship, Trump devoted a good portion of the 20-minute ceremony to extolling the two-way star, making him the primary Dodgers participant whom the President singled out and approached to shake palms.
“He looks like a movie star,” Trump joked, earlier than itemizing off the numerous accomplishments from Ohtani’s unprecedented 50/50 season and unanimous Nationwide League MVP award-winning efficiency final yr.
“He said it was an honor to meet me, and I told him it was also an honor for me to meet him,” Ohtani later added in Japanese of the change, earlier than joking that Trump was “taller than I thought.”
“It’s really an honor,” Ohtani added of Monday’s occasion. “I’ve come from Japan like this to play here, and I appreciate this country every day. I think it was an honor to be able to meet the top person in this country.”
When requested if he hoped to return to the White Home with the Dodgers as champions subsequent yr, Ohtani answered affirmatively.
“I think I’d like to go as many times as possible,” he mentioned.
And to this point this season, the slugger has been enjoying prefer it; beginning 2025 nearly precisely the place he left off in 2024.
In his first 12 video games, Ohtani is batting .311 with a 1.081 OPS (nearly equivalent to his full-season stats final yr), plus 4 dwelling runs, 5 RBIs and two stolen bases. Amongst Dodgers hitters, solely catcher Will Smith (who’s batting .400 with a 1.117 OPS) has higher early-season numbers.
Ohtani’s 2025 spotlight reel is already including up, from his sentimental dwelling run in the course of the crew’s season-opening journey to Japan to his walk-off blast towards the Atlanta Braves at Dodger Stadium final week.
He’s even began a brand new hand-signal celebration for the crew’s potent lineup — mimicking a melodramatic business he did for a luxurious Japanese skincare firm (one which his teammates light-heartedly razzed him about whereas watching it on loop throughout their journey to Japan) by dragging two fingers in entrance of his eyes whereas rounding the bases after his walk-off dwelling run.
“I think it’s good for them to tease me and get excited,” Ohtani mentioned when requested in regards to the celebration Monday. “I think the atmosphere is good.”
Ohtani broke out the celebration repeatedly Monday night time. After going simply one-for-11 in a weekend sequence towards the Philadelphia Phillies, he exploded for a three-for-four efficiency towards the Washington Nationals in a 6-4 loss.
Ohtani had a first-inning infield single, a third-inning two-run dwelling run and a fifth-inning triple that hit excessive off the middle discipline wall. Twice, he had an opportunity to finish his second profession cycle with a double. However, after hanging out within the eighth, he settled for a stroll within the ninth, attempting to increase a Dodgers’ rally that finally fizzled for his or her third loss within the final 4 video games.
“The at-bats Shohei took were pretty exceptional,” supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned. “Even that last at-bat to earn a walk … and not try to chase a cycle, speaks to being a team player and passing the baton. He had an excellent night.”
The one factor lacking for Ohtani in the meanwhile is his long-awaited return to pitching.
In one other parallel to final yr, the 30-year-old right-hander continues to slowly chip away at his restoration from a 2023 Tommy John surgical procedure, throwing common bullpen and long-toss classes and not using a clear finish date to his rehab in sight.
“I think the bullpens are going well,” mentioned Ohtani, who’s now greater than 18 months faraway from his second profession Tommy John process and is anticipated to return to pitching in some unspecified time in the future this season. “I think I’m in a really good place feel-wise.”
However when requested how shut he’s to throwing reside batting apply classes — a significant hurdle in his restoration Ohtani bought near clearing final yr earlier than pausing his pitching program in the course of the playoffs, then having his winter routine delayed by an offseason surgical procedure to his non-throwing shoulder — Ohtani wasn’t positive of a precise timeline.
“I’m still at the stage in which I have limits on the types of pitches I can throw and limits on speed,” he mentioned. “I think that will be something I discuss with the doctor and the team staff. Personally, I think it’s something I’d like to do not too far out.”
Ohtani mentioned such limitations come from Dodgers brass and head crew doctor, Neal ElAttrache, the famend sports activities surgeon who has carried out each of Ohtani’s two Tommy John operations.
For instance, Ohtani has not but been cleared to throw his sweeper. He solely simply reincorporated just a few splitters into his most up-to-date bullpen this previous weekend. Throughout that very same session, his velocity continued to hover across the low-90s.
“[Dr. ElAttrache] said that since it’s my second operation, it’s better to be careful,” Ohtani mentioned. “Personally, I think I’d like to go along with that.”
So, within the meantime, Ohtani continues to concentrate on the identical hitting-only function he mastered final season; a lot so, it prompted presidential recognition.
“Is he good?” Trump jokingly requested of Roberts at one level throughout Monday’s ceremony.
“He’s only getting better,” Roberts responded with amusing.
“He’s getting better?” Trump mentioned. “That’s scary for a lot of people, huh?”
