On December 9, 2017, Shohei Ohtani signed his deal with the Los Angeles Angels. On December 13, it was revealed that he had been diagnosed with a first-degree UCL sprain in his right elbow and received a platelet-rich plasma injection to treat the injury.
Initial reception by American media
Ohtani's debut MLB spring training in 2018 was disastrous and the majority of American news sources were extremely disappointed, concluding that he could not accomplish even one of his two-way abilities. Over two spring games against major leaguer batters, in just 2.2 innings pitching he gave up three home runs and had a 27.0 earned run average (average ERA for MLB pitchers was 4.14 that year). He completed his five game spring training, three of which against minor leaguers, with an 11.7 ERA in pitching, and 4 hits for 32 at bats,125/.222/.125 in batting (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage, averaged .248/.318/.409 for MLB batters that year.
2018年のショウヘイ・オオタニのルーキーカード、GEM MT 10グレード