Japanese baseball player Shohei Ohtani was a two-way star in Nippon Professional Baseball, his home country’s major leagues, when he signed with the Los Angeles Angels in 2018. Ohtani was courted by many prominent Major League Baseball teams but decided on the Angels for a variety of reasons. Since the Angels play in the American League (AL) and use the designated-hitter (DH) position, Ohtani was able to pitch and bat as the DH on his pitching off-days (the National League adopted the DH position starting in 2022). Reporting at the time also suggested that Ohtani preferred to play for a team on the West Coast to be closer to Japan and that he was attracted by the team’s talented roster, including Mike Trout. Ohtani’s choice was a surprise, given the Angels’ relatively low profile and lack of recent playoff success.
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