Ohtani doesn’t look the same with the Dodgers: Does the biggest contract in history weigh him down?

Ohtani not off to the best start with Dodgers

Japan’s Shohei Ohtani signed the largest contract in sports history when he agreed to a $700 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers last offseason. While it was known that the Japanese would only be batting in 2024 due to having surgery on his pitching elbow, his start to the season has not been the best.

Both from the extra-sporting point of view due to the illegal gambling case involving him through his former interpreter Ippei Mizuhara, as well as in terms of his statistics, it has been a complicated start for him, even though the Dodgers have a 6-2 record until Wednesday, leaders of the National League West Division.

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Ohtani’s numbers at the start of the year.

Since the start of the campaign, Ohtani has lacked power in his bat even though he has a decent batting average, as he has a line of .242/.297/.333 with no homers and three doubles, driving in three runs in 37 plate appearances.

His OPS+ is at just 66, with this stat measuring how good a hitter is once adjusted for conditions such as the park he plays in, the era and the league’s offensive ecosystem in general, with 100 always being the average.

However, it appears that Ohtani is just having bad luck in his shifts, as according to Baseball Savant, his xSLG is .638, plus he’s hitting the ball pretty hard, with an average exit velocity on his at-bats of 94.4 mph, meaning it would only be a matter of time before he starts seeing results.