Angels Video: Shohei Ohtani Side-By-Side Shows Mechanical Changes and Rise to Dominance
Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani made a huge splash when he came over from Japan after the 2017 season. Every team wanted him, and because he was subject to the international signing system and not a true free agent, there were limits on how much teams could offer him — and he was therefore available to nearly every team.
The reason he was so coveted is simple: He was 23 years old and had posted an .859 OPS and 2.52 ERA in five seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. He was already an excellent hitter and pitcher.
Ohtani signed with the Halos and won the 2018 Rookie of the Year Award with a .925 OPS and a 3.31 ERA, but arm troubles limited him to just 51.2 innings pitched that year and 1.2 innings in the following two years combined.
Rob Friedman, aka Pitching Ninja, recently tweeted side-by-side videos of his pitching mechanics from 2018 and 2022. Friedman looked at a range of pitches and selected these two for their similarities — both with no runners on base, both fastballs in the high 90s.
But it's the differences that really stand out.
One thing that you can see even from a still frame is that Ohtani has more muscle now than he did five years ago. But beyond, the mechanics are entirely different. The more recent version of Ohtani is much quicker to the plate and has much less wasted movement, which likely leads to a more repeatable delivery. As scouts will tell you, a repeatable delivery is the key to command.
Friedman and Giants pitcher Alex Wood both suspect one major contributor to the change/improvement in Ohtani's delivery.
Whatever the reasons for the improvement, perhaps the biggest takeaway here is that even after reaching the big leagues and winning the Rookie of the Year, Ohtani was still so motivated to improve that he drastically changed his pitching mechanics. Maybe some of that was the arm injury that cost him two seasons on the mound, but the competitive drive is pretty awesome.
