LOS ANGELES – Dave Roberts has said it about a number of topics or players over the years, mixing Yogi Berra-level wordcraft with a touch of Casey Stengel wisdom.
“You don’t know until you know.”
After seven seasons in the major leagues and two – about to be three – MVP awards, the last unknown about Shohei Ohtani is how he will perform in the postseason. He avoided October for six seasons with the Angels and cited the chance to play for a championship as his No. 1 reason for signing with the Dodgers last winter.
He will get his first chance to prove himself on the postseason stage starting Saturday when the Dodgers open their National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres.
“I think there’s always unknowns when something hasn’t happened. But it’s a fairly comfortable position to be in, in that I have a lot of confidence that he will do well,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “Obviously he flourished down the stretch. I talked about this when we signed him. But watching him in the World Baseball Classic (in 2023) … what you don’t know about someone until you see them in those moments is just what kind of competitor are they? And he more than answered those questions for Samurai Japan, especially in that ninth inning (closing out the championship game). I got goosebumps watching that inning. And I think the whole world got to see what an incredible competitor he is.”
Friedman said Ohtani’s “ability to slow everything down around him is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”
“Playing meaningful baseball in September, and the way he was able to channel that and just lock in and take everything to another level is very, very unique,” Friedman said.
Ohtani made it clear he has no doubts about his readiness to perform in the postseason. He was asked during Friday’s press conference if he was nervous at all about playing in the postseason for the first time. He answered in English without waiting for the question to be translated.
“Nope,” he said.
Ohtani called it “really a mixed, complicated feeling not being able to participate in the postseason” over the past six years particularly while recovering from his first Tommy John surgery in October 2018.
“It’s always been my childhood dream to be able to be in an important situation, to play in important games,” he said in Japanese. “So I think the excitement of that is greater than anything else that I could possibly feel.”
Ohtani roared into the postseason by going 31 for 61 (.508) with eight doubles, seven home runs, 18 runs scored, 26 RBIs and 11 stolen bases over the final 14 games of the regular season.
Ohtani was certainly fueled by his drive for 50-50. But the Dodgers prefer to look at Ohtani’s two-week push as a response to playing meaningful games in September for the first time in his career.
“I think it’s a preview,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Because you just don’t know. These are very, very playoff-driven games that we’ve played in and you just don’t know how a player is going to react. If they’re going to get overzealous, overanxious. But he has really balanced those emotions perfectly and performed remarkably. I think that’s what we’re going to see this postseason.”
Not even the Padres have anything to say about it.
Their manager, Mike Shildt, was asked at Friday’s workout how the Padres would approach pitching to Ohtani and try to limit the damage he can do.
“I’m not telling you,” Shildt said with a laugh.
“He’s a great player. He’s having an historic year. But we feel good about our plan, and the plan is just as good as the execution. I feel confident we’ll execute as well.”
While Shildt wouldn’t divulge the concepts of a plan the Padres might have, walking Ohtani comes with its risks. He did steal 59 bases this season including his last 36 without being caught. And the man batting behind him, Mookie Betts, has done some damage when Ohtani has been walked in front of him.
“You think about it, how to navigate that in a couple of different ways,” Shildt said of Ohtani who was 15 for 46 (.326) with six doubles and a home run — and seven walks – in 12 games against the Padres this season. “Just broad strokes, without getting into anything that’s really strategic overly – but you look up and, yeah, you want to take Shohei out of the equation. But … just like when you bunt somebody, who are you bunting him over for? Are they going to be able to get him in? You usually put somebody on because you like the match-ups better behind them and you’ve got two MVP-caliber guys right behind him (Betts and Freddie Freeman).
“A lot of times we have a lefty on Ohtani, which we prefer, the numbers bear that out, and we like our lefties. And I’m not a guy that likes to run from competition a whole lot. We clearly tip our hat and he’s clearly a very exceptional player, but I believe in our guys, too.
“So it’s what competition is about, and there may be a time this series where we tell him to go down the road (intentional walk) and we take on Mookie and see what that looks like. But it will be really situational-based, but we feel confident that we have the ability to get Ohtani out.”
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Regardless of how the Padres approach Ohtani, the onus will be on Betts and Freeman to erase the memory of last year’s combined 1 for 21 in the NLDS loss to the Diamondbacks.
Freeman will be limping into the series with a sprained right ankle – upping the pressure on Betts to be a threat behind Ohtani.
“It weighs on him,” Roberts said of Betts who was 0 for 10 last year and is 2 for his past 29 in the postseason. “It’s still hard to get hits, but he’s going to do everything he can to change that narrative. He has performed in the postseason, but I guess the last couple or whatever – I still believe in him.”
