Nursing a few issues with a finger on his throwing hand, the Los Angeles Angels recently opted to push Shohei Ohtani back in the rotation, but then they decided to move his day back up. His most recent stretch since the beginning of July has yielded some of his roughest outings on the season, as he’s allowed 14 earned runs in his last 16.1 innings coming into Friday.
Ohtani has put together a solid season overall, but to ensure the longevity of his season, keeping him on a proper schedule has been the best recipe thus far. After a postponement forced the Angels and Detroit Tigers to play a doubleheader on Thursday, the Angels decided to move Ohtani’s day back up from Friday.
The Angels announced Ohtani would be making his 20th start of the regular season, following some back and forth, via Jeff Fletcher of the O.C. Register:
“As we sat down and talked about it, it was too much,” Nevin said, adding that it “kind of started as his idea.”
With the Angels chasing a few teams in the hunt for a spot in the American League Wild Card standings, having their ace on the mound for their weekend series would’ve been optimal. It’s a stance that Angels manager Phil Nevin voiced, but wasn’t the main driving factor in them coming to a decision:
Nevin conceded that it would have been nice to have Ohtani start against the Blue Jays, who are currently holding the third wild card spot, but ultimately this was the arrangement that was most likely to yield a good performance by Ohtani.
“The first reaction is it’s the Blue Jays and we want you to pitch against Toronto, but all these games are important,” Nevin said. “We need the best Shohei Ohtani we can get and we just felt this was it. Sitting down with him, he knows his body better than anybody. Takes better care of himself than anybody. Just walking through it, we felt like he would be the freshest to pitch tomorrow’s game vs. Friday’s game.”
Ohtani ended up pitching a complete game shutout against the Tigers, showing it was the correct move for the team.
But the Angels don’t have as many arms needed to constantly shuffle the deck, especially if they want to put up a fight in a highly-contested series with the first-place Atlanta Braves. Unfortunately, because of this rocky week, they could be forced to figure it out on the fly:
The ripple effect of the rainout is that the Angels will need a starter for Tuesday’s game in Atlanta. Next Wednesday’s series finale in Atlanta – the day game – could be Ohtani or Sandoval, with the other pitching the first game of the homestand against the Seattle Mariners.
“As always, it revolves around what’s best for Shohei, because of who he is and what he does on an everyday basis for us,” Nevin said.
Ohtani is the anchor of the staff, and given his presence on the mound and at the plate, trying to protect him from further injury is the top priority. But Nevin and the Angels have found success in their starting rotation from various spots, including a run that aided in their sweep of the New York Yankees this past week.
Angels no longer considering Shohei Ohtani trade
Following the trade of Lucas Giolito, it slammed the door on any possibility the Angels would explore a deal for free agent-to-be, Ohtani. Making one final push for the postseason with this group is where the club seemed to head prior to the season and it will be the path they take for the rest.
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