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Dodgers Had to Double One Team Amenity Just for Shohei Ohtani

Ohtani wanted something to change and the Dodgers immediately made the change.

Stephen Douglas

Shohei Ohtani keeps hitting home runs thanks to one simple investment by the Dodgers.
Shohei Ohtani keeps hitting home runs thanks to one simple investment by the Dodgers. / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
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Shohei Ohtani has had another incredible season at the plate as he hit more than 50 home runs for the second straight year with the Dodgers. He is also leading the National League in on-base percentage and slugging for the third straight season.

Ohtani has worked incredibly hard to hone his craft and it shows. Los Angeles found out just how hard Ohtani works very quickly. When their prize free agent showed up two years ago he told them there was one thing in their clubhouse that was not sufficient.

The batting cage.

According Dodgers executive vice president Lon Rosen, Ohtani pointed out that one batting cage was not enough. So they built a whole new clubhouse with two.

"We also built a new clubhouse last year because when we were signing Shohei, one of the things he noticed was we only had one batting cage," said Rosen. "So we rebuilt."

After adding the second cage Ohtani had the best season of his career with Los Angeles. And apparently that's when he explained why the second cage was so important.

"In the offseason Shohei came into the office and you know he went 50 for 50 and won the MVP and Stan [Kasten] says to him how can we be better with two batting cages? And he answers Stan, the batting cage is my home."

No wonder Ohtani has plans to construct a "small hitting and pitching facility" at his new actual home in Hawaii. More importantly for the Dodgers, it's no wonder he's having another MVP-caliber season.

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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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