Could Angels have kept Shohei Ohtani? Their non-offer lingers ahead of his Anaheim return
When Randal Grichuk was traded to the Angels last year, arriving as one of several veteran additions the club made during its all-in trade deadline buying spree, he quickly recognized his new club’s main objective.
Sure, the Angels were trying to make the playoffs, hopeful of erasing a three-game deficit in the wild card standings for their first postseason berth since 2014.
But really, the moves were all about Shohei Ohtani — serving as one last attempt to show the Japanese star and pending free agent that Anaheim was a place where he could compete for championships.
“I think they were trying to prove to him that they’re willing to do what it takes to be a successful organization and reach the postseason,” Grichuk, now an outfielder with the Arizona Diamondbacks, recalled this week.
The Angels flamed out of playoff contention in spectacular fashion last fall, losing seven straight games at the start of August to quickly dash their deadline plans.
A few weeks after that, the nadir got deeper, when Ohtani was lost for the season to elbow and oblique injuries.
His last game with the team was Sept. 3, 2023.
On the first anniversary of that date, Ohtani will be back in Anaheim on Tuesday night.
In what will be his first regular-season appearance at Angel Stadium as a member of a visiting club, Ohtani and the Dodgers begin a two-game Freeway Series amid the kind of postseason surge he never experienced in Anaheim.
The Dodgers have a healthy division lead after taking three of four games from the Arizona Diamondbacks. Ohtani has been chasing MLB history in the process, with his 44 home runs and 46 stolen bases leaving the league’s first 50-50 season within reach.
“Up to this point, I’ve never been in such a good position in September,” Ohtani said Monday in Japanese. “It’s special, and in the midst of that, playing against a divisional rival we’re battling in the standings is also an experience I hadn’t had until now. I think there are a lot of games with a heightened sense of urgency.”
This is the dynamic that always made Ohtani likely to leave the Angels as a free agent.
At various points of his Angels career, he emphasized his desire to win and compete for championships. But at almost every juncture of his time in Anaheim, the club’s top-heavy roster, perennial injury problems and questionable spending decisions prevented that from happening.
“Me personally, I had seasons that were good but also seasons in which I was injured and couldn’t play or couldn’t pitch,” Ohtani said when asked about the Angels’ struggles during his time there, shouldering responsibility for organization-wide problems. “If I had been able to contribute to the maximum, I think there are parts that would have been different.”
Despite all that, however, there was much speculation around the industry during Ohtani’s free agency that he desired — if not preferred — to re-sign with a floundering Angels team.
It was the MLB team he originally picked when he first came from Japan. The place where he flourished as the league’s first two-way player in generations, unanimously winning the MVP award in 2021 and 2023.
Yet, come Tuesday night, Ohtani will be on the visiting side of Angel Stadium — thanks to a decision that still rankles much of his old fan base.
As The Times first reported back in December, the Angels didn’t match the $700 million offer Ohtani and his agent, Nez Balelo of CAA Sports, presented to interested teams at the end of his free-agent sweepstakes.
