NEW YORK — As he went via his free-agency course of this winter, Shohei Ohtani laid out his preferences. He wished to hitch a staff that made him really feel snug, a company he might name house the remainder of his profession.
However what Ohtani cared about most was becoming a member of a staff that might assist him get to the place he hadn’t earlier than. Ohtani had by no means appeared in a postseason recreation. He wished to alter that instantly.
In his first season with the Dodgers, Ohtani achieved that. And after the Dodgers’ 7-6 win over the Yankees in Sport 5 of the World Collection, Ohtani can add yet one more feat to his already spectacular resume: World Collection champion.
“I’m honored to have the ability to be a part of a season the place we performed the longest, and to have the ability to get to know this staff,” Ohtani mentioned via interpreter Will Ireton. “My first yr and expertise profitable a World Collection has been an amazing honor.”
It wasn’t the World Collection efficiency he hoped for, as he went simply 2-for-19 and suffered a left shoulder subluxation in Sport 2. Nonetheless, he was in a position to turn out to be simply the 14th participant to win each a World Collection and a Japan Collection.
“We have been in a position to get via the common season, I feel, due to the power of this staff, this group,” Ohtani mentioned. “And the success of the postseason is similar to how we have been in a position to pull it off in the course of the common season. Once more, the power of the group. Extraordinarily honored to be part of this.”
Even together with his modest manufacturing within the World Collection, the Dodgers wouldn’t have been on this state of affairs with out Ohtani’s contributions all year long. Because the Dodgers handled quite a few accidents all through the season, Ohtani was at all times the constant producer atop the lineup.
“If you begin supporting a teammate in his first yr, like we did, for him to go on the market and have the best season, I feel, of all time,” mentioned Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman. “That’s fairly particular.”
“Six years within the States, arguably the very best participant within the large leagues. So he dedicated to us, and he wished to play for a championship,” mentioned Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts. “For it to sort of come to fruition in his first yr is fairly exceptional. What Shohei’s accomplished to our ballclub, the Dodger fan base domestically, globally, I simply don’t assume you may quantify.”
As Ohtani celebrated within the Dodgers’ clubhouse on Wednesday, he informed president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman that he wished to participate within the champagne showers for the remaining 9 seasons of his present deal.
Subsequent season, Ohtani will now not be rehabbing a second Tommy John surgical procedure and might be again on the mound, making the Dodgers much more harmful. However no matter what occurs sooner or later, arguably the sport’s greatest star might be receiving his first World Collection ring subsequent March.
“For him to hoist that World Collection trophy,” Roberts mentioned. “That’s one thing he dreamed of, I’m positive, for fairly a while.”