Sports Illustrated - USA (2020 - Spring)

Trout saw Ohtani hitting in the

batting cage before one of the final

exhibition games. He no longer was

lifting his front leg but simply picking

up the heel and softly putting it back

into the ground.

“He was launching,” Trout says.

It was a massive last-minute change,

like a diva deciding on the eve of a

tour to sing in a different key. Ohtani

slugged .564 in ’18, the same as Trout

slugged as a rookie. While he says

his biggest adjustment was to the

velocity—“Everyone throws in the

training, hitting-wise. Well, pitching-
wise, too. I wasn’t too worried about it.
They were exhibition games.”
Eric Hinske, then the Angels’ hit-
ting coach, was not so sanguine.
Weeks of concern prompted him to
intervene just before Opening Day.
Hinske suggested Ohtani try hitting
without the leg kick. It was a bold sug-
gestion considering Ohtani, a .500
slugger in Japan, was just embarking

mid-90s”—Ohtani has slugged .655

against pitches 95 mph and faster

over the past two seasons, sixth best

in MLB and far better than the aver-

age of .398.

As good a hitter as Ohtani turned

out to be, his work on the mound was

even more spectacular. At 18 he threw

154 km/h, or 95.7 mph. The next year

he reached 162 km/h (100.7). In ’16,

he set a Nippon Pro Baseball record

with a pitch at 164 km/h, then broke

that a month later at 165 km/h (102.5).

With the Angels in ’18, he topped

in history—only

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Williams, Mike Trout,

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Mickey Mantle.

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Sox sent in February

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more crucially, will

be available as an

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agent once the

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While stars have

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market in recent

memory—Gerrit Cole

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just this offseason,

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’18—Betts, who turns

28 in October, offers

the sort of franchise-

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not seen since

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Seattle for Texas

after a 10.4 WAR

season in ’00.

Will Betts, who

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the offseason, look to

make his long-term

home with a club

nearby in the South

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Whoever signs him

next winter will most

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$32 million annually

over more than

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10-year, $300 million

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Boston for 12 years

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(Some benchmarks:

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10 years onto Trout’s

contract before ’19 at

$36 million annually;

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be worth $374 million

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MLB salaries have

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faster rate.)

It may be worth

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three MVP-caliber

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turn the Rangers into

a winner. Still, Betts’s

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his new team’s next

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—Matt Martell

Because...

THE DODGERS

JUST CAN’T STOP

CHURNING OUT

ELITE TALENT

L.A. emerges

from the

2010s as

MLB’s model

franchise, with

seven straight

NL West titles

and a conveyor

belt of super-

prospects

that’s still in

motion. Thanks

to homegrown

stars young

(Cody Bellinger,

Walker Buehler)

and younger

(Gavin Lux,

Dustin May),

the Dodgers

are ideally

positioned to

win it all, if not

in ’20, then in

’21 and ’22 and

’23... —M.M.

3

...