Will the legend of two-time double-entry finally come to an end after 3 seasons?
It has been reported that Los Angeles Angels’ Shohei Ohtani has suffered an elbow injury and has finished his duties as a pitcher this year.
After finishing the double header with the Cincinnati Reds on the 24th (hereinafter Korean time), Perry Minassian Angels general manager told local media, “Today, after the first game of the double header, Onati received a video check on his elbow. He will not throw any more for the rest of the season. Soon “I’m getting my second opinion and I’m going to start from there. He’s in day-to-day right now. Obviously he can hit.”
Ohtani started the first game of the doubleheader that day and voluntarily gave up the pitch in the second inning, complaining of pain in his right arm. He only said that his arm was tired at this time. However, an MRI scan immediately showed that the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL), or medial collateral ligament, was ruptured.
The right elbow is where Ohtani underwent Tommy John Surgery (TJS) after the 2018 season, when he made his major league debut. At this time, it is unknown if he will receive another TJS. If the surgery results come out, it will be fatal for pitcher Ohtani. This is because if he gets TJS twice, his chances of coming back drop dramatically.
This is a case where Toronto Blue Jays Ryu Hyun-jin received TJS twice, in 2004 when he was a sophomore at Dongsan High School and last year, so the ‘gap’ of 18 years is very different from Ohtani. Ohtani received her first TJS on October 2, 2018. He returned as a hitter on May 8 of the following year and as a pitcher on July 27, 2020. However, the rehabilitation period may be longer for the second TJS.
MLB.com reported the news of Ohtani’s injury on the day and said, “For Ohtani, who will become a free agent at the end of this year, this injury came at the worst time ahead of the biggest contract in major league history. If he gets a second TJS, he may not be on the mound for much longer than next year, as his odds of a comeback are drastically lower than the first. If so, his value is fatally damaged,’ he predicted.스포츠토토
Since it is unknown when he will be able to pitch again, it means that Ohtani, who has put into practice the unprecedented talent of two-time pitching, can remain as a ‘normal’ home run hitter.
Ohtani became the AL MVP by unanimous decision in 2021, when he doubled as a pitcher in earnest, and last year, he continued his myth with the achievement of simultaneously achieving the first regulation at bat and regulation innings in history. And in his third year, this season, he booked the MVP with a 50 home run-200 strikeout pace.
Regarding Ohtani’s dual career as a pitcher, some experts who were former players in Japan have suggested that it is better to focus on one because someday it will hit a fatal limit. Most of them are people who highly value pitcher Ohtani’s ability rather than batter. However, now, on the contrary, the possibility of a long run as batter Ohtani has increased. Of course, it cannot be concluded that the elbow injury was aggravated by the double work of pitching.
Local media and experts have been scrambling to predict Ohtani’s market value since last summer.
The forecast, which started at $500 million, soared to the $700 million line when Ohtani seemed to hit a career high in pitching this summer.
Miami Marlins president David Sampson told Forbes in February that “an important factor to consider when signing Ohtani is that he serves as both a pitcher and a hitter.” There is a problem, but Ohtani plays the role of two players with an annual salary of $ 25 million, so $ 50 million is reasonable. He is the first starter and the center hitter.”
It is explained that if his contract is for 10 years, it will be at least 500 million dollars.
According to ESPN’s May 2005 survey of 26 experts on Ohtani’s ransom, six were less than $500 million, 14 were between $500 million and $549 million, and six were over $550 million. At the time, the largest prediction among 26 people was 605 million dollars in 2011 (annual average of 55 million dollars).
Furthermore, in an article predicting the size of Ohtani’s free agent contract on the 15th, ESPN argued that 624 million dollars in 11 years was an appropriate value. As a hitter, the Philadelphia Phillies’ Trey Turner (11 years, $300 million) and a pitcher, the New York Yankees’ Gerrit Cole (9 years, $324 million), each have similar performances, so the logic is that the two players should be combined.
However, the exciting prediction competition for astronomical amounts is now meaningless. At the end of this year, the free agency market was shaken by Ohtani’s injury.