Two-way player Shohei Ohtani didn’t perform like the star the Angels had hoped would carry their rotation and lineup last year. He faltered at the plate. He wobbled on the mound. Playing in empty ballparks throughout the division, he barely resembled the phenom who both pitched and hit at a level unseen in more than a century.
The potential of Ohtani, 26, nonetheless remained tantalizing as the season drew to a close. Heading into his first year of arbitration eligibility, he seemed poised to net a considerable raise for next season.
And yet Ohtani’s 2021 case is unresolved.