The Los Angeles Times’s Kevin Baxter believes the Dodgers should make the same decision with Shohei Ohtani that the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox both made with Babe Ruth over a century ago:
Focus on just one of their all-time baseball phenom’s positions and not overwork him as a pitcher and position player.
Specifically, giving up pitching, something that’d make sense considering his two Tommy John surgeries.
Baxter condemned the Dodgers' bullpen's performance during an unfathomable 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday as to why Ohtani’s Ruthian feats may not always have juice that’s worth the squeeze.
“The Dodgers and Ohtani insist he’ll remain a two-way player for the time being, but recent performances suggests both the Red Sox and Yankees may have been on to something when they took Ruth off the mound,” Baxter wrote.
“Ohtani made his eighth start of the year Wednesday and it was his best as a Dodger, with the right-hander giving up just a tainted run on two hits and striking out a season-high eight in four innings. Perhaps more important, he also slugged his first home run in 10 games in the third inning of a 5-3 matinee loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
“It was the first truly Ruthian two-way performances for Ohtani since he joined the Dodgers but it was one the team’s defense and bullpen wasted, with three relievers combining to yield four runs on 10 hits over the final five innings.”
Shohei Ohtani can’t be Babe Ruth in the modern MLB
Ohtani didn’t get a ring with the Los Angeles Angels before joining the Dodgers and winning a chip off the rip in the Chavez Ravine. The Ohtani-Ruth comparison is flawed in that sense.
Ohtani being a two-way player in this day in age, when there are more teams and more talent across every team than it was in the early 1900s, is a more impressive feat, though.
Regardless, the Dodgers may need to concede that Ohtani should exclusively slug the ball from the plate for longevity's sake.