Why the Yankees have benefited from not signing Shohei Ohtani

The Yankees may have dodged a bullet this off-season by not signing Shohei Ohtani.  According to ESPN’s Pedro Gomez, an MLB scout said Ohtani “Should be in A-ball right now.”

The Japanese baseball “superstar” signed with the Los Angeles Angels this winter but he’s struggled in Spring Training. The pitcher and designated hitter has been awful this spring on the mound and in the batter’s box.

Here are his MLB.com official Spring Training stats as a hitter: 28 plate appearances, .107/.219/.107 slash line, three hits, three walks.

On the mound, 2.2 innings pitched, five strikeouts, 27.00 ERA, 4.12 WHIP, and .529 BAA.  Those numbers don’t include all of his scrimmage games as a pitcher.  These do:

Yes, the sample size is too small to judge him as a scrub.  But he missed a considerable amount of time last year because of injuries. One could argue that if he ends up being a bust, the warning signs were glaringly obvious.

Fansided’s Adam Strangis pointed out that we should not be alarmed if Ohtani has a slow start to his career. And he’s right; we shouldn’t be. Asking a 23-year-old rookie to show dominance in the majors is unfair.

But for the New York Yankees, they are in win-now mode. They don’t have room for bad investments forcing missed opportunities that could improve the team. Some fans believe if the Yankees signed Ohtani this off-season, then Giancarlo Stanton would have never been acquired.

Cashman wanted Ohtani, badly

Yankees GM Brian Cashman praised Ohtani this off-season as an “an exciting young talent.”  As reported by Newsday, Cashman also made a plea for Ohtani while hanging from a building in Stamford.

"“Ohtani-san, New York’s been waiting for this moment,” Cashman said to a Fox 5 camera. “This is a stage for all the great players in the world to play on. Obviously, we believe you’re one of those next great players. I hope you’re listening. We’re saying it loud, from the top of buildings, we’re interested.”"

When the prized prospect decided to rule out the Yankees, it’s safe to assume Cashman was disappointed. Honestly, I was too, and I’m sure there were other bummed #PinstripePride fanatics. He should have informed the Yankees his intentions before they tried to impress him.

But I’m not salty over the situation at all, and neither should you (if you’re a Yankees fan). Allow me to explain the benefits of Ohtani not being a New York Yankee in 2018.

No Ohtani Rules

When the Ohtani-mania sweepstakes began, the pitcher and his representatives had a few demands (sarcasm intended).

Before the Nippon Ham Fighters posted him, Ohtani reportedly mentioned he would do whatever MLB teams ask of him. But after the posting, his agent made all interested teams fill out a questionnaire that included defining his role.

Because of his schedule in Japan, he had to pitch once every six days. He also wanted to hit on his days off from pitching.  Later on, CBS Sports reported he preferred to be on on the west coast, in a small-market, and a team without any Japanese stars (no love for Masahiro Tanaka).

Who in the world does this guy think he is? Does he think he’s “The next Babe Ruth” or something?

Well, scouts labeled him that because of his great success as a hitter and pitcher in Japan. So I guess he, or more importantly his agent, did have the right to use those buzz-words during negotiations.

As reported by CBS Sports‘ Matt Snyder:

"Ohtani, 23, has been at Japan’s highest level since his age-18 season. He battled injury last season and only appeared in 65 games. In 2016, though, he hit .322/.416/.588 with 22 homers in 104 games. He also went 10-4 with a 1.86 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and 174 strikeouts in 140 innings on the mound."

The Angels ultimately landed Ohtani because they were a west coast team that was willing to meet Ohtani’s preferences. They will implement a six-man rotation to fit his schedule, and he will be the DH on days off from the rubber.

But for the Yankees, they don’t have to adjust their strategy to appease the star. Instead, the Yankees most significant concern at this point is figuring out the right lineup for their stacked roster.

No monitoring of Ohtani’s injuries

Keeping Ohtani healthy is going to be a problem. That’s what FanSided’s Joshua Lea believes, and I agree. While only 23 years of age, his past and current injuries could make one think he is a battle-tested veteran.

Last October, Ohtani injured his ankle while running the basepaths in the Japan Series. The injury caused him to skip the WBC and miss a majority of the regular season.  When he was playing, his performance also suffered as he went 2-2 with a 4.96 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 16 1/3 innings.

Ohtani finally had surgery on his injured ankle this October. He was expected to be able to play again after three months. So problem solved right? Wrong.

Ohtani has other injury concerns. He missed six weeks of action as a pitcher last year because of a left thigh muscle strain. There was also that UCL tear in his left elbow the baseball universe mysteriously found out about shortly after Ohtani signed with the Angels.

The Yankees already have a pitcher with a UCL tear in Tanaka and C.C. Sabathia is arguably more injury prone as an aging heavy-set veteran pitcher. So the Yankees would be better off without another injury-prone starter, especially one who can’t pitch twice in a six-day period.

No lousy press about Ohtani’s poor spring

The Yankees are always going to attract bad news because they are the most dominant franchise in the history of professional sports. However, if Ohtani were a Yankee this spring, the media would eat him alive because of his poor performance.

Ohtani’s struggles would have been covered more by the New York media than anything coming out of Yankee camp. Rookie manager Aaron Boone and the young ball club want to stay focused on winning. Ohtani would have been nothing but a distraction this preseason.

Imagine the headlines from the NY Post or the Daily News? The newspapers would run out of ink (not really) while printing because of all the negative coverage. I bet “Nohei Ohtani” would become his adopted nickname moving forward.

Last week, Angels GM Billy Eppler mentioned Ohtani is not guaranteed an active roster spot on Opening Day, according to Yahoo Sports. If he were a Yankee now, it would be difficult for Boone and Cashman to explain why they were still considering him for an Opening Day roster spot.

Next: Who could be the Aaron Judge of 2018?

What do you think? Should Shohei Ohtani start the regular season in the majors?