The future of Shohei Ohtani

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by Seven

I hate to be a pessimist in this situation, but Ohtani is one injury away from never returning to this form again. What he's doing is remarkable, and I hope he will be able to keep up some semblance of this production, but I do not think it's likely.

It seems, more and more nowadays, that players bodies break down faster. Maybe due to the hyper specialization of sports nowadays, or the fact players are pushing themselves to their physical limits when it comes to pitching and hitting. I can see Ohtani maintaining this level of dominance for another two to three seasons before his body suffers the same fate. He might have to choose at that time what he wants to do more, hit or pitch.

I do not think he becomes the "GOAT" as I think that any notion, of that conversation, is absurd. You cannot possibly compare a player today to a player of 100 years ago. The world is an entirely different place. Furthermore the only way you could possibly measure that would be era adjusted statistics, which even then is spotty, because they are not infallible. I however, think, he's one of the most talented players to ever do it, certainly one of the most versatile, and I think we should all leave it at that.

Agree with most of this. Also not to be pessimistic, but I hate to bring up the obvious fact that if Ohtani gets this huge contract everybody is predicting for him based his recent production, he's going to perpetually be a ligament strain away from being a Half a Billion Dollar DH. Essentially, peak level J.D. Martinez.

I do think if he stays relatively injury free for the rest of this season, and socks away a 2nd MVP Award, he's pretty much a HOF lock, just based on his ground-breaking achievements thus far.