Five homers in the opening 15 games is the fastest pace in his career! Shohei Otani: “Evolution of the lower body” was the factor behind his strong hitting!

Why he is also successful as a hitter

Jacob deGrom (37, Rangers), a two-time Cy Young Award winner and the best right fielder in the game, whose dominant pitches and bullet-like hard balls are compared to those of the Terminator, threw a 157 km/h pitch to the right field stands without hesitation.

On April 13 (Japan time), Shohei Ohtani (31) hit his fifth homer of the season, his second consecutive first-base hit.

Last season, when he hit a career-high 55 homers, he had four by the end of 15 games, but this year he has hit five, which is a fast pace. Although most people tend to focus on his success as a pitcher who continues to pitch well, he is also off to a great start as a hitter, breaking Ichiro’s (52) record for the longest streak of consecutive appearances in a game by a Japanese hitter.

Although many media outlets attribute his strong performance to the many actual games he played in the WBC held in March, baseball commentator Takehiko Kobayakawa analyzes that “his hitting itself has improved from last year. As can be seen in the photo above, Otani this year folds his hip joints deeper into his swing and keeps his center of gravity slightly lower than in previous years.

The fact that the results are already starting to show means that this hitting form is a good fit for him. He is able to compactly deal with the strong fastballs of the top pitchers in the Majors. Having said that, Ohtani is a man of inhuman power, so his swing is strong.

This “compact strength” is also evident in the data. The barrel rate (the percentage of ideal hits that are likely to result in a hit or a long ball), which was 23.5% last season, has increased by 4 points to 27.5% (as of April 14, 2012). In addition, his average swing speed and maximum batted ball velocity have also remained at the same high levels as last year, indicating that he has simultaneously improved his output and certainty.

Ohtani usually shows tremendous growth from the middle to the end of the season, and given that he has such a record at this point, it is tempting to expect him to break his own records for major-major stats such as home runs and OPS this season.

According to Kobayakawa, “The source of this hitting is the evolution of his body, especially his lower body.

What counts in batting is how stable your core is, rather than the technical skills of the branches and leaves. This year, Ohtani has obtained a body axis that does not blur by being very conscious of the tenacity of his lower body. That is why he is able to mass produce long hits even in seemingly cramped conditions. This lower-body tenacity also has a positive effect on his on-base percentage. Otani is less likely to get his hands on the ball ball than before. When he misses it, he rarely swims forward, sits back, or loses his stance.

His form is already near perfect, but this is not his final form. He’ll be improving his accuracy as the matches go on.”

Will he be able to produce another big bloom this season with a body that does not waver no matter what the ball throws at him?

From the May 1-8, 2026 issue of FRIDAY