A lot of eyes are on Ohtani Shohei, the former Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighter who is called the “Babe Ruth of Japan” because he’s a pitcher that hits a lot of home runs.
In his debut as a pitcher, despite a rocky start, Ohtani came through with a win.
But today the Los Angeles Angels switchplayer, had his first opportunity at bat at home in Anaheim and he was able to deliver with a 3-run homer.
This was his second game batting, his debut as a batter was on March 29th in which he went 1-5 against the Oakland Athletics.
Of course, it’s still way too early in the season to see how Ohtani will do throughout the season but so far, if he can keep this up, Anaheim knows they will have gotten a wonderful player for a great price.
According to the Los Angeles Times:
The Angels are expected to pay Ohtani a $2.315-million signing bonus, most of which they acquired within the last week via trades. They will also send a $20-million posting fee to the Nippon-Ham Fighters, Ohtani’s former Japanese team.
Had he waited to come to MLB in two more years, at 25, Ohtani might have netted a guaranteed contract of about $200 million for six or seven seasons, league executives estimated. By coming now, he was limited to earning a maximum $3.5-million bonus and he is guaranteed a salary of no more than the major league minimum of $545,000 for the next three years.
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