Hitting and pitching—that’s what I enjoy the most. Even if I keep playing only as a batter, I’d probably be thinking the whole time, ‘When will I be able to pitch again?’

Since moving to Major League Baseball, Shohei Ohtani has undergone two surgeries on his right elbow.

As a result, he was unable to pitch in both 2019 and 2024, focusing solely on hitting during those seasons.

In 2024, he played almost every game as a designated hitter and achieved the historic “50–50” milestone.

However, even while delivering extraordinary results as a batter, something was missing.

Whenever Ohtani was unable to pitch—not just due to long-term recovery, but even in uncertain situations where a return timeline was unclear—he admitted that continuing as only a hitter felt incomplete.

During his final season with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in 2017, Ohtani struggled with injuries that prevented him from pitching.

Although his batting performance remained strong, and he continued to appear in games, his thoughts were elsewhere.

“Hitting and pitching—that’s what I enjoy the most. Even if I keep playing only as a batter, I’d probably be thinking the whole time, ‘When will I be able to pitch again?’”

Even his manager, Hideki Kuriyama, expressed concern that focusing solely on hitting might not be mentally sustainable for Ohtani.

For him, hitting and pitching are not separate roles.

They are inseparable parts of what makes baseball truly enjoyable.

Without both, the game feels incomplete.

Source

This quote comes from a Japanese book published in Japan and is not currently available in English.

Shohei Ohtani: Baseball Shonen I (Japan Edition 2013–2018), p.278

Shohei Ohtani Quotes

Hitting and pitching—that’s what I enjoy the most. Even if I keep playing only as a batter, I’d probably be thinking the whole time, ‘When will I be able to pitch again?’

Source

More Quotes

I want to be used more. I want to play in more games.

I just focus on each and every game. I don’t think about proving people who doubt me wrong.

I need to keep pitching. Every time I take the mound, I learn something new, and I feel myself getting better. I’ll keep pitching next year and beyond.

I hadn’t experienced something like this before, so it’s become a great memory. But more than anything, if I can make it to the postseason—the World Series—I think this will be replaced. That’s what I want to aim for.

I’m really happy to have reached the level of the players I admired since I was young. I want to keep building, step by step.

Nothing really changes in just one game. I want to keep doing my job pitch by pitch and at-bat by at-bat, so people feel that when Shohei is in the game, we’re more likely to win.

I think that feeling of frustration is what’s motivating me this year.

I won’t know what my total numbers look like until everything is over, and I don’t think I need to think about that right now. Until I retire, I just want to give everything I have each year.

It’s not about simply putting in the numbers. It’s that by going through more repetitions, you increase the number of good and bad outcomes, and that leads to refinement.