Angels News: MLB Analyst Says We Haven’t Seen the Best of Shohei Ohtani Yet

This is something you have to hear to believe.

Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani has quickly turned into one of baseball's greatest players. In 2021, he became the 19th unanimous MVP in MLB history. And last year, it took a historic season from Aaron Judge to prevent Ohtani from going back-to-back. And this year, he's already the American League favorite for the award.

In 2021, it was Ohtani's bat that led the way. However, last year, he also turned into one of the best pitchers in baseball, making the All-MLB First Team as a starting pitcher. Ahead of next season, MLB Network even ranked him as the No. 6 starting pitcher in all of baseball.

This week, the MLB Network had a discussion about Ohtani, with former All-Star MLB pitcher and current analyst Ron Darling. He was asked if we’re seeing the best of Shohei Ohtani right now as a pitcher.

"No. Not even close. That’s how good he is." Darling said. "He’s coming off a year where he was, what 15-9, ERA in the twos, struck out 11.9 almost 12 every nine innings — as good as you think any pitcher could ever do. There’s so much more for him to grow. When he first came up, he had so much pressure on him and he dove into Spring Training that first time and he got hit around a little bit. And you were thinking that, boy, he’s gonna be a guy that maybe was a lot of stuff and not substance. But I think the most important thing is when you see Ohtani’s small and short career so far, it’s been a learning experience, he’s very serious about his craft and despite early in his career maybe not being at his best [against] guys who are established in the major leagues hitting home runs, he kept working at it, he kept getting better and he just, kind of, maneuvered his usage of what he uses."

Darling said that the usage in Ohtani's slider went way up last year, and did a great breakdown of how he approaches at-bats. You can watch the full breakdown here:

As good as Shohei Ohtani is now, Ron Darling thinks he still hasn't reached his full potential. @Angels | #MLBTonight pic.twitter.com/sRuXSvaU0K

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) February 6, 2023

He concluded by saying Ohtani isn't even close to reaching his full potential.

"I think he is using almost just half of his greatness," Darling said. "So as he goes along and he gets more intelligent about how to get hitters out, maybe his strikeouts might come down a little bit, but his innings will go up, his pitch usage will get to a place where he’ll use his fastball as well as his slider and he’ll go deeper in games."

It's scary to think that Ohtani is only half as good as he can be, but Darling definitely knows what he's talking about. And if this is the case, then Ohtani is going to have to make some room on his already crowded trophy shelf for some Cy Young Awards.