The 2023 season officially came to an end. Hence, several players are free agents now. On the free agent market, it is certain that so many baseball fans will pay a lot of attention to see where the top free agent Shohei Ohtani will go. Before he makes his decision, let’s take a quick look at his performances during these 6 seasons with the Angels.
As a batter, he slashed .274/.366/.566 with 171 home runs and 437 RBI. Additionally, he stole 86 bases. In particular, he crushed 30+ home runs in each of these 3 seasons. In 2023, Ohtani blasted 44 home runs, leading the AL. He became the first Japanese-born player to claim the league’s HR title.
While seeing Ohtani’s great performance in 2023, I began to think about a question. Is he now the home run leader among Japanese players? To understand a little bit more, I went to check on the great baseball reference website.
Well, Hideki Matsui played 10 seasons in the majors. In total, he played 1236 games, slashing .282/.360/.462 with 175 home runs and 760 RBI. By far, he’s still the leader for most career home runs among Japanese players. However, Matsui had only one season to smash at least 30 home runs. Additionally, future Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki belted 117 home runs in 19 seasons. In total, 3 Japanese players smashed at least 100 home runs in their careers. Ohtani now has 171 home runs. He intends to hit in 2024 and very soon, we might see him surpass Matsui’s 175 home runs.
Ohtani, at this moment, is not the leader for career home runs among Japanese players. When we look at hits, no doubt, the leader is Ichiro Suzuki. Ichiro collected 3089 hits in the majors and this record is extremely difficult for a player to reach. Hideki Matsui had 1253 hits. Furthermore, Nori Aoki spent 6 seasons in the majors and collected 774 hits. Ohtani now has 681 hits in 6 seasons. In 2023, he had 151 hits. If he stays healthy in 2024, it will be highly possible to see him surpass Aoki in career hits in the majors.
Finally, let’s look at walks. Again, two well-known names are on the top of the chart. Ichiro Suzuki drew 647 walks and Hideki Matsui had 547 walks. Moreover, Ohtani has 351 walks so far. In 2023, Ohtani drew 91 walks in 135 games. So, if he stays healthy, in 2 or 3 seasons, he shall draw more walks in career than Matsui did. To surpass Ichiro’s number, it might take 3+ years.
Ohtani underwent elbow surgery in September. In 2024, he will not take the mound. However, we shall still see him bat. So, we only look at hitting stats this time. As one of the most dangerous hitters in the majors, baseball fans shall see him surpass Matsui’s 175 home runs and become the career home run leader among Japanese players. But, first thing first, it will be very interesting to see which team will finally sign him this offseason. Is it going to be the largest contract in baseball? If so, how big will this contract be?
No comments:
Post a Comment