Sho-Time by Jeff Fletcher

Author:Jeff Fletcher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2022-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

High-Tech Diamond Polishing

Immediately following Shohei Ohtani’s self-described “pathetic” season, he was searching for answers and open-minded to changes in his training. After starring in Japan and winning the Rookie of the Year Award for his debut season in the majors, Ohtani was not accustomed to what had happened in 2019 and 2020.

“You have a player that hasn’t really gone through what he went through,” said Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo. “It’s a little gut check. You say ‘Okay, wait a second, what happened here? What can I do differently now?’”

Balelo said he and Ohtani decided to “lift up the hood,” analyzing every element of his training to see what they could do to get him back to his customary level of play. They looked at his work on the field and in the gym, and even examined his nutrition. They knew the talent was there, because Ohtani had already demonstrated he could be a successful two-way player in the majors for the first ten weeks in 2018. The offseason of 2020–21 was all about rediscovering where he’d already been.

“A lot of it was just taking this fine diamond and polishing it up again,” Balelo said. “It got a little dirty. All we did was polish it up again. There wasn’t this incredible magic potion that he sipped every day. It was all there. The core was all there.”

Polishing that diamond required Ohtani’s full investment in a new approach. “This was Shohei really wanting to own his career, and own his offseason and do something different,” Balelo said. “So that’s what we did.”

The most important part of Ohtani’s winter rebirth occurred before he even started training, though. Ohtani was healthy when the offseason began, which was a refreshing change. He had undergone Tommy John surgery in October 2018 and he had knee surgery in September 2019, so his workouts had been limited in each of the previous two winters. No one expected Ohtani to be at full strength immediately after Tommy John surgery, but the impact of the knee surgery was perhaps less understood at the time. The legs are vital for any pitcher or hitter. Ohtani, who favored high intensity and heavy leg workouts, could not do those in the winter of 2019 because of his knee surgery. In October 2020, Ohtani was a year removed from surgery, so he was again free to do heavy lifting with his legs.

Ohtani’s leg strength, and his aptitude for improvement, had best been illustrated a few years earlier.

In January 2018, General Manager Billy Eppler and a few members of his staff went to Japan to spend some time with Ohtani and run some tests before his first Spring Training in the majors. One of the tests was a vertical leap. Ohtani’s performance was just about average, which was surprising for an athlete who had been so extraordinary at everything else. It was a disappointment to Ohtani, too. He had never been asked to try a vertical leap, and the technique was a mystery to him.

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