With the recruitment of Shohei Ohtani this winter, the LA Dodgers’ No. 1 to 3 batters became the strongest in the Major League. There is no other team that can compare to the Dodgers’ No. 1 to 3, which have three players who have won the MVP award, including Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Ohtani.
Now, Dodgers has only one concern. It is the deployment of their batting order.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said in an interview with MLB.COM on the 26th, “They never gave me a strong opinion on this,” adding, “They said it doesn’t matter much about what batting order they play.”
For now, Betts seems certain to fix the No. 1 ranking. Betts is considered one of the best leadoff players in the league along with Ronald Acuña Jr. of the Atlanta Braves. He played in nearly 1,000 games in the first hitter position, and posted an on-base plus slugging percentage of 0.915.
His biggest concern is to bat second to third times. Watchers say that the strongest hitter in modern baseball is second. As in the past, strong batters are often placed in second place rather than third, fourth, or fifth times. In the past, the New York Yankees also often placed Aaron Judge at second place, which would have been placed in the center line. Judge hit 62 home runs in 2022, when he surpassed Roger Maris’ 61 home run record in 1961, when Judge hit 47 as a second batter.
The Dodgers’ concern is not that there is no player to play second or third roles, but that it is happy about who and how to deploy them. This is because both Ohtani and Freeman are players who can play their roles regardless of whether they are second or third.
Freeman played three times in 1,146 games and recorded an OPS of 0.906. However, he played 161 games as the second batter, posting a very good OPS of 0.976 with a batting average of 0.331 with 29 homers, 102 RBIs, and 23 steals. In contrast, Ohtani played 240 games in his second career and 247 games in his third career, and his OPS was as strong as 1.013 when he played as the second batter. In the last season, his OPS stood at 1.207, which was unbelievable.
Based on the records, it seems reasonable for Ohtani to hit twice and Freeman to hit three times. However, to give Ohtani a lot of chances, Freeman hit twice and Ohtani hit three times. Actually, Ohtani only hit 100 RBIs once in the six seasons since his debut in 2021. He managed to hit 100 RBIs just in time. He hit 44 homers last season, but he only had 95 RBIs. Angels hitters who failed to garner RBIs despite his 0.317 and 1.079 batting average with scoring capacity and OPS, respectively, were largely responsible for failing to set the table. This is evidenced by the fact that out of 44 homers last year, 24 or more were hit without runners. With best teammates Betts and Freeman, Ohtani could have more chances.
BY: 토토