The Angels are getting used to life after Shohei Ohtani: ‘It’s like being kicked out of the band’

TEMPE, Ariz. – For the past six years, no matter how early the Angels players and staff arrived at Tempe Diablo Stadium, every morning they saw a crowd of Japanese media standing on Tempe Butte Mountain overlooking the team’s spring training complex. This was not a recreational sunrise hike. Every camera was zoomed in, waiting for the arrival of two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani.

While spring training means early mornings for players, coaches and reporters, the group assigned exclusively to Ohtani made everyone else think twice about their red flags. Ohtani Watch started at 5am, when most of the Cactus League was still asleep. There were no free weekends and no wiggle room: everyone was looking for that one shot, every day, for the entire six weeks of camp.

“Good luck beating them here,” Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon said of a group that routinely consisted of 50 reporters and could swell to more than 70 for special Ohtani occasions, such as his first-ever press conference during spring training, that the team had to keep. stay in an off-site hotel for crowd control.

“They said they had to be here,” Angels bench coach Ray Montgomery said, shaking his head. “I asked why, and they said in case Ohtani showed up early.”

Ohtani’s enormous celebrity and the attention that came with it never calmed down. When he came to Tempe in 2018 as a 23-year-old Japanese star, no one was sure how Ohtani’s talents as a pitcher and hitter would translate. There is no doubt that the three-time All-Star, two-time AL MVP, two-time Silver Slugger and Rookie of the Year is a generational talent.

Ohtani’s star power now resides 26 miles away at the Dodgers camp in Glendale. If you’ve been living under a rock, the Dodgers signed Ohtani to a 10-year, $700 million contract last offseason. If you’ve lived near Tempe Buttes, the view just got a lot better.

So what happens when the mountain is empty again? What is life like when the Ohtani circus leaves town?

“Someone said in recent years that maybe this was what it was like to be with the Beatles,” Rendon said. “You don’t get used to (the attention), but you expect it. Now it’s like being kicked out of the band.”

The biggest change, other than the fact that no one saw the team members getting in and out of their cars, happened in the clubhouse. It is and has always been the players’ space. But when Ohtani was there, that huge contingent of reporters made some Angels players feel like guests in their own home.

“It’s nice to get our space back a little bit more,” Angels outfielder Taylor Ward said.

Losing a nine-WAR player doesn’t make any team better. But it made them breathe a little easier.

“Sometimes players were intimidated by a lot of media,” said Carlos Estévez, the Angels’ veteran closer. “A few younger guys. They said, ‘I’ll stay away.’”

Pitcher Patrick Sandoval was one of Ohtani’s closest friends, but even he acknowledged it was a “weird dynamic” to have the Japanese reporters ask him one question about himself, and then 10 more questions about Ohtani. If cameras even caught you nodding to the superstar, the media would ask you to talk about it.

“I always felt that (players were wary of us). We are actually here to cover one man, but we are trying to get other cases related to that one man,” said a Japanese reporter who has regularly covered Ohtani for years and requested anonymity to speak freely.

The Angels PR staff, often inundated with requests, tried to rotate which players they asked to speak about Ohtani, who usually limited his media availability until after his mound had begun. Angels communications manager Grace McNamee, who speaks Japanese, would take notes on Ohtani’s unique schedule and coordinate photo opportunities.

With Ohtani gone, “I’ve never seen Grace so relaxed,” Montgomery said.

A year ago, there was barely enough room to walk down the alley-like hallway in the Angels’ spring training locker room. Now catcher Matt Thaiss and fellow backstop Chad Wallach have enough room there on a March morning to toss a football back and forth as part of an impromptu fielding drill.

Gone are the Ohtani signs and stadium paraphernalia from the stadium and around Tempe. But if you’re one of the thousands of fans who made Ohtani’s jersey the bestseller in all of baseball last year, fear not: It’s still in active Angels circulation.

Ohtani’s number – the famous red and white number 17 – now belongs to…drumroll, please…non-rostered invitee Hunter Dozier, who has a career minus 2.6 WAR, or wins above replacement. Dozier wore No. 17 for almost his entire seven-year career with the Kansas City Royals and signed a minor league deal with Anaheim in mid-January. In the weeks before spring training started, he started wondering: Would the Angels give it away so quickly?

He got his answer on the first day of camp. The 32-year-old utility man emphasized that number 17 has no special meaning for him; it was exactly what the Royals gave him when he started his career.

Now, that number could make him one of the hottest non-roster invitees in Tempe Diablo Stadium history.

“There could be a lot of 17s (in the stands),” said Dozier, who has already been transferred to minor league camp, meaning he won’t make the Angels’ Opening Day roster. “Just don’t look at the last name, but at the number.”

And don’t look too close in the left corner of the clubhouse.

Angels starting pitcher Reid Detmers was surprised when he arrived at camp expecting to be in his normal locker — only to find he was given Ohtani’s old space directly to the left of the clubhouse door. Each end spot in baseball clubhouses is typically occupied by veterans and stars, allowing for plenty of room (they often use the locker next to it for overflow) and a quick exit from the media.

“It was a bit sad,” Detmers said. “But at the same time it was pretty cool. Obviously it’s a great locker, and Shohei was incredible. Great guy. Easy to talk to. Talk to him about anything. It is special to have his old locker.”

What has quickly lost its appeal are the incessant questions about The Guy Who Ain’t Here. The Angels players, who were still dealing with daily Ohtani questions all spring, had much bigger questions heading into camp, such as: Will there still be sushi?

Each spring, the Angels send a survey to players to gauge their nutritional wants and needs for the upcoming season. Without Ohtani, several players feared that the steady flow of Japanese cuisine would slow to a trickle, leaving the question: “Are we still going to eat sushi?” a common registration question. The answer was yes. Ohtani wasn’t actually the biggest daily sushi consumer on the team; that title probably belongs to Mike Trout or Logan O’Hoppe.

Trout is also the only current Angels player who remembers Life Without Ohtani, and the fact that Ohtani’s arrival in 2018 didn’t actually result in more sushi, or any other food at the team’s spring facility. Ohtani had a nutritionist in Japan who communicated with the Angels staff during an early meeting. During the season he often brought his own food. In Tempe, one of Ohtani’s first English statements to staffers was: “I’m good.”

After a disappointing 2020 season, Ohtani used blood analysis to determine which foods produced his best results and optimized his recovery. The timing was equally crucial. Working on a fairly tight schedule, his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara often sent order requests ahead to the Angels’ kitchen staff so that Ohtani’s food – a rotating menu that always included lean proteins, vegetables and carbohydrates – would be ready when it was needed, which was rarely . during the players’ lunch rush. Ohtani’s schedule was so unique that he often ate with just Mizuhara and infielder David Fletcher.

Still, Ohtani’s absence will be felt in the dining room. Last year he brought Japanese Wagyu beef to the kitchen a few times to cook for the team. Several angels mourned the loss.

Aside from potential iron deficiencies, everything is a little calmer for the Angels post-Ohtani. There is plenty of parking at Tempe Diablo Stadium. Tickets are easy to obtain. The signature lines for players entering and leaving the stadium are minuscule compared to previous years. The Angels’ senior guard focused much of his attention on Ohtani and the crowd of fans and reporters entering and exiting his court. Even Mizuhara often had fans with signs waiting for him as he exited the team bus. As one player described it, there is much less commotion now.

“He brings such an audience, not a bad thing, because of the way he handled himself on the field,” Trout said.

‘I’ve never been around someone so big. I don’t think baseball has seen anyone that big,” Rendon said. “It was weird, right? In hotels and other places, many people would try to find him.

Now the eyes that track Ohtani’s movements have been shipped to Los Angeles. Just a short drive, but a world away.

(Top image: John Bradford / The Athletics; Photos: Aaron Doster/Getty; Michael Owens/Getty)