Shohei Ohtani has been the most impressive story of the entire Major League Baseball season. Chicago White Sox fans are lucky enough to have watched him play them on television and in person at Guaranteed Rate Field. It has been really fun to watch this guy play all year long and continue to break records.
Shohei Ohtani is an incredible pitcher. He has made his final start of the season which means he ends with a 9-2 record, a 3.18 ERA, 156 strikeouts, and a 1.09 WHIP. Those are some very good numbers for a front-end starter. It isn’t just these incredible pitching stats that make Ohtani great. He is also a world-class hitter.
On days where Ohtani isn’t the starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, he is in their batting lineup as a designated hitter. That makes him a “Babe Ruth” style two-way player. No player in the history of baseball has done it quite like Ohtani. He might be having the greatest single season in the history of the sport.
As a hitter, he has a .259 batting average with a .964 OPS. With that, he has 45 home runs, 99 RBIs, and 26 stolen bases. He joins Alfonso Soriano, Chipper Jones, Jose Canseco, Larry Walker, and Barry Bonds as the only players to have 45 or more home runs in the same season as they have had 25 stolen bases or more. He is only the second in the history of the AL (Canseco) to do this.
All of this is incredible for one player. There is a reason that this is an 8.9 WAR player. He also has three games this weekend to try and snag that 100th RBI. He is as good of a player as there is in Major League Baseball.
Unfortunately, he is on the Angels who are not a good baseball team. They are currently 75-84 and 18.0 games behind the Houston Astros for the AL West lead. Obviously, they are going to miss the playoffs once again. That seems to be an issue for Ohtani.
Through his interpreter, Ohtani was clear that he wants to win above all the things he likes in Los Angeles. He confirmed that they have not begun working on a contract extension in the same interview through his interpreter. This is not something that Angels fans want to hear any time soon but it is the reality of the situation.
Ohtani would be a great fit for any team in the league. He is an All-Star pitcher that also is an All-Star hitter. He is going to be the American League MVP once the season is over. With all that in mind about how every team would love to have him, the Chicago White Sox are an especially good fit.
Shohei Ohtani would be an even bigger boost to the Chicago White Sox roster.
Chicago’s AL team could absolutely use a full-time DH like Ohtani and they could also use another starter in the long term. We don’t know the future of Carlos Rodon or Dallas Keuchel but Ohtani would compliment Lucas Giolito, Lance Lynn, and Dylan Cease perfectly.
The one position he has played in the field this season is right field which is also somewhere the White Sox don’t have locked down long term yet. It might be an unrealistic dream but he would fit on the team in multiple ways and they would provide him with a legit place to win.