Ranking Shohei Ohtani
Shohei Ohtani will unquestionably be the toughest rank for anyone all year just for the vast number of unknown variables, especially since we’re not even sure where’s going to play yet. In my October SP rankings, I didn’t include Ohtani because we weren’t even sure that he was coming over 100%. Now that the posting system issue is settled and he’s officially coming over, I’ve dropped him into the rankings at 31. I’ve made plenty of changes to the October rankings as I’m in full research mode and will have an update after the New Year, but here’s a look at those just above and below Ohtani:
- 25 – Jon Lester, CHC
- 26 – Jeff Samardzija, SFG
- 27 – Gerrit Cole, PIT
- 28 – Jake Arrieta, FA
- 29 – Garrett Richards, LAA
- 30 – Lance McCullers, HOU
- 31 – Shohei Ohtani, FA
- 32 – Jose Berrios, MIN
- 33 – Chase Anderson, MIL
- 34 – Zack Godley, ARI
- 35 – Rich Hill, LAD
- 36 – Alex Wood, LAD
- 37 – Michael Fulmer, DET
- 38 – Luis Castillo, CIN
- 39 – Jon Gray, COL
- 40 – Sonny Gray, NYY
He has narrowed his list and seems to be favoring the West Coast, which keeps my darkhorse pick, Seattle, in play. When discussing it on the podcast, I acknowledged that the Dodgers and Yankees were obvious favorites (this was pre-posting before he eliminated NYY), but officially picked Seattle as my landing spot (eager to see how this entry ages). With him coming over early and eschewing a free-for-all financially, it was clear that he favored aspects beyond strictly the contract. Seattle’s tremendous success with Asian-born players – not just Ichiro – makes them a strong candidate.
Mac Suzuki was their first in 1996 and though he never thrived in the majors, he did hang around until 2002. Kazuhiro Sasaki came over in 2000, excelled as a closer for three years and even won a Rookie of the Year. Ichiro came over a year later and of course dominated. The Angels brought Shigetoshi Hasegawa over in 1997 and then he finished with four years in Seattle (2002-05). Kenji Johjima had a solid four seasons (2006-09) before returning to Japan at age-34. Muneori Kawasaki and Hisashi Iwakuma came over in 2012 with Kawasaki returning to Japan this past season and Iwakuma re-signed with the M’s this winter. We’ll see if they are able to land Ohtani, but at least now you have a brief history of their pipeline from Japan.
For the purposes of this piece, I’m going to put the hitting potential to the side. There isn’t consensus on how to handle it and in many leagues you won’t even get his hitting stats, which I expect to be better than the best hitting pitchers if only because of volume, but not something you’re really going to miss (maybe a low-to-mid .700s OPS with some homers). On the mound, there are viable comps to Yu Darvish and it’s not just the lazy “oh they’re both Japanese League pitchers so let’s comp them”, but rather because he has a similar build (6’5, 215) and dazzling pitch repertoire. He’s coming over two years younger than Darvish and has more velocity which starts to conjure more of a Justin Verlander comp. ShoYu Verltani sounds pretty great.
He should bring at least two plus pitches right out the gate with his fastball and splitter while the slider has also gotten plus grades, but might “only” be more of a 50-55 grade pitch, same with his curveball. He doesn’t have a true changeup in his arsenal, but the splitter acts as one without a doubt. While I understand the need for distinction between the two – especially if you’re talking about a circle-change – I’m really just wanting him to have something to change speeds and fool guys looking for his fastball. The fall-off-the-table splitter does just that. Maybe he’ll learn a distinct change and just make life even harder for the opposition once he settles in the States.
An ankle injury limited him to just 25.3 innings last year, but he has peaked at 160.7 innings (2015) so I’d use that as a high end for his potential 2018 output and work from there. If the team that signs him gives him a real go at hitting that might also limit his workload on the mound, especially if the signing team institutes a de facto 6-man rotation. I don’t think it’d be a true 6-man to prevent throwing off the other five arms, but something with a swingman or two to keep Ohtani on schedule. There are also more off days this season, which should make the implementation easier.
I slotted him on the high end of my range because his stuff is so electric and we’ve seen 130-inning seasons rank in the top 30 each of the last few seasons, but he’s in the first large cluster of the pitching pool. There isn’t a ton of difference between pitchers 30 (McCullers) and 50 (Kyle Hendricks), and maybe even 60 (Dinelson Lamet). I don’t say that as a copout, I stand by Ohtani this high, but know that if there is someone you like more in the 40-50 range on this list, I wouldn’t vehemently be against you taking that guy over Ohtani.
For more on Ohtani, I highly recommend this piece by Mike Petriello that analyzes the scant Statcast data we have for him.
I’ve done two NFBC drafts and he’s gone 99 and 40. The second league has a few owners picking ShiNTs early. He is being used solely as a pitcher in the NFBC this year.
His 200-300 potential PA’s (assuming they’re of above average quality) aren’t nothing. In a daily league that could be really useful. Mostly because you can essentially stash those PA’s on your pitching bench instead of your batter’s bench. Isn’t that worth something? Again, assuming he can actually hit.
He’ll likely be a better hitter than your worst offensive player, you can slot him in when he’s in the lineup and you turn your crappy late round flyer into a slightly above average pick. Right?? I think we’re ignoring this value to a certain degree.
I’m only ignoring it/putting it off to the side for now because there is SO much uncertainty on the plan to deploy him *and* how sites will institute him. NFBC won’t have the hitting stats at all. CBS (I think it was them) will have him as a separate pitcher & hitter. So right now there are too many variables to make it a major consideration and i just wanted to focus on the pitching end for this piece
Tight
if the decision by any stat provider is to make two ohtani’s, this is just ridiculous.
Do they have two alex bregmans, one a shortstop, one a third base?
Do they have 4 marwin gonzalez’s? Short, second, third and outfield?
Our league shall use ONE ohtani.
If a stat provider decides for us that there are two ohtani’s, this means one team in my league has to have an extra roster spot vs all other teams. It is soooo simple yet, if your memory is correct Paul, and it is cbs, they are AGAIN going to shit the bed. FAAB. Display. Positions. I can illustrate numerous decisions by cbs for which we, the customer, has to manually work because they refuse to accommodate their customer.
If up to me, I would tell cbs to f%ck off and choose somewhere else but the majority of my league prefers them.
Having a hitter Ohtani and pitcher Ohtani is NOTHING like having 2 Bregmans or 4 Marwins bc of their infield eligibility. I don’t know how easy it is to change the coding to allow Ohtani to float freely between offense and pitching, so there’s a lot of backend technical details we’re not privy to that affects how each outlet handles him
Exactly. Also shouldn’t they do they same thing for all pitchers? I mean not that most are relevant but in daily leagues, on a random Thursday, maybe you want Grienke’s bat that day instead of his arm if he’s against the Dodgers at home with Ryu against him on the mound. Just saying.
Value rankings and ADP are going to diverge drastically on Ohtani. Here he’s ranked as about a 115ish overall player.
He’s gone inside the top 50 of two NFBC drafts I’ve done this offseason, ahead of CMart, Nola, Paxton, etc.
I’m staying far away and am *really* excited to put him up in auction drafts with my first pick and see the overspending.
Assuming he’s one guy that can be deployed as either a hitter or pitcher, where do you put his auction value? Redraft and keeper. Just curious.
in my 12 team only, $260 auction budget, using hitting and pitching stats, he’ll probably go for $40 or more.
Ya, I laid off on Darvish and Tanaka in year one and didn’t regret it even as both were quite successful. It’s not that they couldn’t and Ohtani can’t succeed from the jump, it’s that they HAVE to if the price is going to be justified
I think that’s about right. Wow, Paul, our rankings are amazingly similar – at first I thought I was way out on some limbs but you’re out there with me. Way out on a crowded limb, hmm.
Nice! I have him inside the top 30 but that’s assuming he throws 150ish innings. That would be on the high end, no way he throws more than 175. With his incredible stuff and the lack of familiarity to the MLB hitters, the advantage is in Ohtani’s favor. The teams that see him for the first time may struggle and with his limited innings, he could really have top 10-15 ratios without the volume of wins and Ks. You mentioned Tanaka and Darvish but also include Maeda who was better in year 1 than year 2.
So in ottoneu that translates to roughly a $10-14 pitcher?
Paul why did samardzija go from 43rd on your last ranking to 26th on this one? 43rd seems much more fitting.
Paul,
Just saw the note on the SP Guide, above. Are you doing this for 2018?
i dont see why it’s so difficult for sites to have him as a SP/UTIL player. you pick where you want him to play each day- in a pitcher spot or the UTIL spot. On that day, only the stats he accumulates on the pitching or hitting side will count.