Ohtani thankful after 'special' return to Anaheim

ANAHEIM, Calif. — When he prepared for his first at-bat in Tuesday’s top of the first, fans saluted him with a standing ovation. When he roped a line drive down the right-field line two innings later, “MVP” chants greeted him as he reached third base. And when he was intentionally walked in the 10th inning — paving the way for Mookie Betts‘ game-breaking three-run homer immediately thereafter, setting up the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ 6-2 victory — the largest Angel Stadium crowd of the season jeered loudly.

Shohei Ohtani was welcomed back warmly in his first official game back in Anaheim, save for some sparse boos.

It helped that at least half the 44,731 people in attendance were Dodgers fans who made the 30-mile trek south.

“As a player, I feel very supported and appreciative of all the fans that are in front of me, in front of the team,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “It makes a difference that they’re out here.”

As an Angel, the organization he chose after being recruited out of Japan by practically every major league team, Ohtani won the American League Rookie of the Year Award in 2018 and later tapped into his promise as a two-way phenomenon. He won two MVPs unanimously and would’ve won a third if not for Aaron Judge‘s 62-homer season from 2021 to 2023, during which Ohtani easily paced the majors with 26.1 FanGraphs wins above replacement.

The Angels never sniffed the playoffs during Ohtani’s six-year tenure. But they empowered him to pitch and hit simultaneously the way no one ever had since Babe Ruth, and there was a belief by prominent people within the organization that his loyalty to the Angels would give them a legitimate chance to re-sign him in free agency.

But when Ohtani and the Dodgers put together the framework of a 10-year, $700 million deal that included $680 million in deferred payments, the Angels — under longtime owner Arte Moreno, who doesn’t typically hand out deferrals — declined to match. Whether he would have returned if they did is a question that might forever be left for speculation, and one Ohtani declined to answer when asked by reporters in Phoenix on Monday.

For what it’s worth, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts never felt as if the Angels were a threat this past offseason.

“I don’t think they were in the conversation,” Roberts said. “Obviously, there was a lot of hearsay. They could’ve been in the conversation, but I never got wind of that. It might’ve been on the down low. But Shohei said that they didn’t offer him, so I don’t think they were part of the conversation.”

Roberts says he believes Tuesday’s game — technically Ohtani’s second back at Angel Stadium, if you count the exhibition Freeway Series from March — offered “closure,” but mostly for the fans. He senses Ohtani has mostly moved on. His transition to the Dodgers, Roberts said, has been “pretty seamless” — despite the pressure of a mega-contract, the betting scandal that engulfed his former interpreter and the challenge of juggling his responsibilities as a designated hitter with his rehabilitation as a pitcher.

“It’s just how he’s wired,” Roberts said of Ohtani. “I think that some people are pretty emotional about things and some people are just very kind of unemotional. He’s just simplistic in that sense. It’s part of his past, and a significant part of his life, but I don’t think it’s something he continues to think through. I think he’s more of a forward-thinking person.”

Ohtani did not add to his 44 home runs or 46 stolen bases Tuesday, but he’s still well on pace to become the first 50-50 player in baseball history. If he can hold off New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, he’ll be the first full-time DH to win an MVP and will join Barry Bonds as the only players to win back-to-back MVPs with different teams.

His return here Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of his last game in an Angels uniform and also qualified as the first meaningful September game he had ever played in the stadium. The Angels, who played a video tribute for Ohtani in March, merely honored his return with a videoboard message that listed his accomplishments as he walked toward the batter’s box for his first at-bat. For a brief moment, the description under his name when he came to bat again in the fifth inning read: “Used to work here.”

He sure did.

“The biggest part of all of this is really being able to play at this stadium in front of the Anaheim fans,” Ohtani said. “That was the part that was special for me.”