Shohei Ohtani Chooses the Angels: Fantasy Baseball Impact

The sweepstakes for Japanese star Shohei Ohtani is over as the Angels came out as the victors. What should we expect from him in 2018?

After meeting with seven teams over the course of a couple of days, Shohei Ohtani made his decision on where he is playing in 2018. The Los Angeles Angels may have won the offseason on December 8. I wrote about where he should sign a few days ago. I picked the Dodgers and Mariners but could see him going to an AL team. What can we expect from him in Los Angeles this season?

The Angels were in desperate need of starting pitching. The team suffered a lot of injuries to their starters. Ricky Nolasco made the most starts with 33. Matt Shoemaker made 14 and Tyler Skaggs made 16. The Angels rotation will also feature Parker Bridwell, Andrew Heaney and Nick Tropeano.

Ohtani may not be fire out of the gate, though. He has never pitched more than 160 innings in a season. This does help Ohtani and the Angels’ long-term pitching. As they ease him into the MLB style of play, they can give their other starters some rest, making it a six-man rotation.

More from Fantasy Baseball

Ohtani shouldn’t be expected to pitch more than 180 innings. Fantasy owners will overrate him and draft him rounds ahead of where he should be drafted. I like him as an SP3 with high upside in standard leagues. He has a career 10.3 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 with limited home runs.

What fantasy owners are hoping for is him getting credit for his hitting stats. Unless something changes in the way sites set up their fantasy scoring or player disposition, he will not get points for those numbers. He is primarily a pitcher and will likely fill in as a DH.

The Angles will move Albert Pujols back to first base, leaving the DH spot open for Ohtani. A trio of Mike Trout-Pujols-Ohtani is a dangerous trio for any opposing pitcher to face.

Unfortunately, whatever home runs or RBIs he records will not count in your head-to-head matchup or roto scoring.

Back to pitching though, Ohtani will be facing a couple of good and a couple of bad offenses. The Rangers and A’s finished in the bottom half in batting average while the Astros and Mariners ranked first and 11th.

The Astros, A’s and Rangers ranked in the top-15 in slugging percentage while the Mariners weren’t too far off at No. 19. Globe Life Park, Oakland Coliseum and Minute Maid Park ranked in the top-14 in home runs according to ESPN Park Factors. Angel Stadium was 18th and Safeco finished 20th.

Ohtani, as I said, doesn’t have a history of giving up a lot of long balls but that is a trend across the whole Japanese Pacific League. The six teams hit 781 home runs in 2017. The Yankees, Astros and Rangers hit 716 combined.

Next: Cubs sign Tyler Chatwood

I know Ohtani joining the MLB is exciting, but we haven’t seen him pitch on American soil yet. I would ease expectations until we see him in Spring Training. It’s tough to set a reasonable ADP. He’ll be a top-30 pitcher but don’t miss out on a sure thing for the unknown.

Now we wait to see what happens with Giancarlo Stanton.

Home/Fantasy Baseball